About the Study

Herbicides are a type of pesticides that are used to kill off weeds and unwanted plants. Glyphosate is the main ingredient in the most widely used herbicide in the world, within 750 products, the most famous of which is the product ‘Roundup’.

These herbicide products are used heavily in agriculture, as they are a simple and cost-effective method of controlling weeds and used on to control weeds in a wide range of crops including cereals, oilseed rape, field beans, sunflowers, grain maize, sugar beet and grassland.

Glyphosate products can also be used for crop management as they allow farmers to sow directly into stubble fields without ploughing (zero tillage). 

Glyphosate based herbicides are also frequently used to control weeds for amateur use in gardens and non-cultivated areas, such as parks and gardens, as well as along the roadside and railway tracks. Glyphosate is also used on invasive plant species, such as Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed plants, that can be an adverse health effect (Figure hands blistered from Giant Hogweed) suppress the native vegetation.

Humans can get exposed to glyphosate from ingestion of food sprayed with pesticides or from environmental exposures (e.g. contaminated water) or due to personal use.

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Biological monitoring (or human Biomonitoring) is ‘a chemical exposure assessment method involving the analysis of blood, urine, hair or an exhaled breath sample, for a hazardous substance or its metabolites (breakdown products in the body)’ (HSA). Biological monitoring estimates total exposure from all the exposure pathways.

Human biomonitoring, the measurement of a chemical or relevant biomarkers in biological substances, is considered the gold standard for exposure assessment and is common for pesticide exposure assessments.

 The Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) is a joint effort of 28 countries, the European Environment Agency and the European Commission, co-funded under Horizon 2020. The initiative is coordinating and advancing human biomonitoring in Europe. HBM4EU is generating evidence of the actual exposure of citizens to chemicals and the possible health effects in order to support policy making.

https://www.hbm4eu.eu/

Watch the video below to understand how the body takes up chemicals and the use of human biomonitoring to assess exposure.

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In the IMAGE project, we will collect human urine samples and analyse the samples for glyphosate and its metabolite (break-down products) Aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). In addition, the urine sample will also be analysed for creatinine (a natural waste product of the human body). This is only a measure of the urine sample dilution. The analysed urine samples will provide information that we will use to estimate families’ exposure to glyphosate in Ireland.

The urine sample given will NOT be analysed for any other substance (e.g. alcohol or drug content).

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