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Thursday - July 07, 2016

From: Houston, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Diseases and Disorders
Title: Possible Herbicide Contamination of Soil
Answered by: Anne Van Nest

QUESTION:

My mother will be 80 this year and lives in Houston, Texas. She has a raised bed garden near her neighbors fence. It has been there for many years. She feels that he uses Roundup for his weeds near a large building on the other side of the fence. How bad is it for her to eat her veggies from her garden now that we know this information? What could we use to flush any toxins out if they are in the soil? Could I move this well-tended raised bed soil to the other side of her yard and feel safe eating the produce?

ANSWER:

Sorry for the delay in replying to your question. Regarding your interest in the herbicide Roundup, the Nature World News website just announced that a recent study revealed that 94% of Americans have been exposed to glyphosate (Roundup). Glyphosate is a non-selective herbicide used by many gardeners and farmers.  For details visit the www.natureworldnews.com website.

Jeff Schuette of Environmental Monitoring & Pest Management, Department of Pesticide Regulation says in an article entitled "Environmental Fate of Glyphosate" Soil: In general, glyphosate is moderately persistent in soil. Soil studies have determined glyphosate half-lives ranging from 3 to 130 days. In the soil environment, glyphosate is resistant to chemical degradation, is stable to sunlight, is relatively nonleachable, and has a low tendency to runoff (except as adsorbed to colloidal matter). It is relatively immobile in most soil environments as a result of its strong adsorption to soil particles."

To find out more information about pesticides in garden soils, visit the National Pesticide Information Center and look at their soil and pesticides page or if you have questions about this, or any pesticide-related topic, please call NPIC at 1-800-858-7378 (8:00am - 12:00pm PST), or email at [email protected]. If you are thinking of testing your soil for pesticides before you move it to another location read the NPIC information about this subject on the "Testing for Pesticides and Pesticide Exposure".

The safest course of action would be to move the raised bed to the other side of the yard and bring in new soil to grow edible fruits and vegetables.

 

 

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