On the St Matthews children are allowed onto freshly sprayed areas immediately even though the label says that 4 hours at least should pass before contact.
I have reproduced an article here.
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Questions Surround Safety of RoundUp
by Wendy Wenck
by Wendy Wenck
This column ran in the July 10 issue of the Durham Herald-Sun, and is reposted here with permission from the author.
Q: I have been spraying RoundUp herbicide on weeds around my yard and between the pavers of our sidewalk once in a while. My wife is concerned about me using it, because our children play in these areas and might come in contact with it. How safe is this product?
A: According to its label, the re-entry period before anyone can safely enter areas that have been sprayed with RoundUp is four hours. As with any pesticide application, the person doing the spraying should read the entire product label and follow all instructions. Wear appropriate protective clothing to avoid the spray contacting your skin. At a minimum, this means long pants and a long-sleeved shirt.
While the EPA does not allow manufacturers such as Monsanto to explicitly say that RoundUp is safe, it is certainly implied in their advertisements for the product. Recently I've seen a commercial for RoundUp showing a man dressed in shorts and short-sleeved shirt happily spraying and winning his battle against weeds. The New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, has twice sued Monsanto successfully over false advertising, such as images of young children with bare legs playing on newly treated lawns.
You definitely want to avoid contact with the spray, and not just because of what is listed as its active ingredient, glyphosate. RoundUp also contains something called a surfactant that helps the spray stick better to whatever it contacts, whether it is the leaf of a plant or your skin. Some tests have indicated that the surfactant included in RoundUp may pose more hazards than glyphosate.
There has been testing of RoundUp for skin and eye irritation, and to determine the concentration that causes death of 50 percent of the test population, i.e., the LD-50. There has been little or no testing done to determine its effects on the endocrine system (hormone effects) or with exposure to a mixture of chemicals including other common pesticides. Some consideration is now given to possible effects on children. However, there has been no testing and therefore there is no data for those in utero or on children younger than 6 months of age, before the blood-brain barrier is formed.
Available testing does not allow either the manufacturer or the consumer to determine under what conditions, if any, the product may be used "safely." It also doesn't indicate that where there is no data, there is no risk.
There is a distinctive smell that persists for some time after RoundUp has been sprayed. Individuals who have been exposed have reported symptoms including headaches, sore throats, and irritated eyes. After repeated exposures, some individuals become sensitized and are more prone to headaches with subsequent exposure to RoundUp.
About five years ago, I noticed that I was getting headaches whenever I sprayed RoundUp. I did some research online that gave me much food for thought. Eventually I quit using RoundUp. There is still debate about its safety for humans and the environment. I think that it is significant that the U.S., any testing of the safety of a pesticide's ingredients is done by the companies that would profit from the products, rather than by independent research labs.
I encourage you to check out some online resources and decide for yourself. There are other options for managing weeds such as mulching, vinegar-based herbicides such as BurnOut from St. Gabriel Laboratories, and flame weeding. For the most part, I manage weeds by spending a little time every day pulling weeds by hand, like my grandma did.
Wendy Wenck is nursery and greenhouse manager at the N.C. Botanical Garden. Her column appears every other Saturday.
Original article here http://www.toxicfreenc.org/informed/roundup.html#.U3SqwvldVTI
