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My gut and my limited experience with Round-up say that the problem is not vapors but droplets. Droplets settle out although the finer the droplets the more drift. Use the lowest pressure and coarsest spray setting possible.
If you can treat one plant without killing plants that are immediately adjacent to it using these techniques then your human neighbors should be fine. Bees and neonicotinoids do seem to be a more complicated problem though.
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An interesting article in today's Guardian which in part reads...
US government scientists have detected a weedkiller linked to cancer in an array of commonly consumed foods, emails obtained through a freedom of information request show.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been testing food samples for residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in hundreds of widely used herbicide products, for two years, but has not yet released any official results.
“I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and corn meal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues in an email last year regarding glyphosate. Thompson, who is based in an FDA regional laboratory in Arkansas, wrote that broccoli was the only food he had “on hand” that he found to be glyphosate-free.
That internal FDA email, dated January 2017, is part of a string of FDA communications that detail agency efforts to ascertain how much of the popular weedkiller is showing up in American food. The tests mark the agency’s first-ever such examination.
“People care about what contaminants are in their food. If there is scientific information about these residues in the food, the FDA should release it,” said Tracey Woodruff, a professor in the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. “It helps people make informed decisions. Taxpayers paid for the government to do this work, they should get to see the information.”
The entire article can be read here...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018...nal-emails
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Obie - Here is a little report on the agency that first reported that glyphosate may cause cancer :
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/spe...ncer-data/
And here is IARC's response: http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcn...uation.pdf
In brief, the IARC does not review unpublished results. If you want to really get your tin foil hat in a knot, try to wrap your head around the Agricultural Health Study's choice to NOT publish their findings supporting the safety of glyphosate knowing that it would likely lead to a different outcome for the IARC evaluation. Those findings were published over two years later here:
https://academic.oup.com/jnci/advance-ar...33/4590280
I found this recent article to be a good read showing both the history and how the science is spun by both sides to further the ongoing litigation: https://civileats.com/2018/03/29/inside-...cer-risks/
(Judge) Chhabria said, “I have a difficult time understanding how an epidemiologist could conclude … that glyphosate is in fact causing non-Hodgkin lymphoma in human beings…. But I also question whether anyone could legitimately conclude that glyphosate is not causing non-Hodgkin lymphoma in human beings.”
(responding to rainyjim in the other thread - quote sounds familiar huh, but says something entirely different. Ain't spin amazing? 
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Glinda, I understand your and others concerns about glyphosate being present in foods, but I wonder how much was present...
Was it in the ppm ppb? How does that number reflect levels that might begin to be dangerous to humans?
With technology these days we can detect chemicals at very very low levels. I don't really make a habit of reading the guardian or ascribe to many of the beliefs espoused in their writing, but in your post I noticed you didn't mention either of the above (the amount of glyphosate present or the amount necessary to cause concern/harm).
I don't think detecting glyphosate at infinitesimal levels is really a cause for concern. Glyphosate is rather benign relative to most pesticides. I would wager there is far more toxic chemicals in your house besides glyphosate - like sodium hypochlorite among many others much too numerous to list.
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On a parallel track I have concerns about the presence of arsenic in locally grown produce. "Organic" means nothing to me... there are plenty of organic poisons.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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quote:
Originally posted by ironyak
(responding to rainyjim in the other thread - quote sounds familiar huh, but says something entirely different. Ain't spin amazing?
Hi, Ironyak.
Yes, undoubtedly people in public positions are generally pretty good at spin huh?
As far as the Reuters/IARC debacle goes I think the main take away is that the IARC refuses to share the process behind their decision making (see article linked below - its a different article than the one you linked btw). Reuters has revealed that earlier drafts of the IARC monograph on glyphosate indicated glyphosate does not cause cancer while later drafts completely reversed this finding. This is a rather concerning reversal and when the IARC was questioned they refused to reveal their decision making policies while sharing: “IARC would like to reiterate that draft versions of the Monographs are deliberative in nature and confidential.”
I don't know about you, but I think a public regulatory agency has no business refusing to reveal their decision making process - especially for something as controversial as this subject and especially when their finding is the opposite of every single other major regulatory agency in the world.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/spe...lyphosate/
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quote:
Originally posted by Rob Tucker
On a parallel track I have concerns about the presence of arsenic in locally grown produce. "Organic" means nothing to me... there are plenty of organic poisons.
Hi Rob,
This is exactly why this whole crusade against glyphosate and/or GMO is so harmful. It takes attention away from actual problems we are facing. We know so many of our agricultural lands are contaminated with arsenic and other heavy metals that are the legacy of pineapple and sugar cane production and we know these contaminants, like arsensic, are so harmful to humans, but instead of focusing on this we have ideological crusades against proverbial straw-men. It's tilting at windmills on steroids.
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quote:
Originally posted by ironyakAin't spin amazing?
Thanks for the links, ironyak! Worthwhile reading all...
Cheers,
Kirt
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ideological crusades against proverbial straw-men
What nonsense. Where, what studies, what research, what evidence do you have to suggest your words are any more than hysterical ramblings? The words of Monsanto? Seriously rainyjim, what makes your conclusions any more valid than Chicken Little's?
You call people's concern for their health, for the communities health, an ideological crusade. What are you saying? That you know better and everyone else can go jump in a lake? That sure is what it sounds like.
Yes Hawaii has a long history of using, excessively, chemical warfare against weeds and bugs. We further exasperating things by putting arsenic in the bagasse to make Canec, which was then hung in all the homes throughout Hawaii. Pure insanity. And now we are left with horror stories like what's lurking in the sentiment of the Wailoa estuary and Hilo Bay. Superfund sites that are so toxic they can't even clean them up.
But to say that all that is what's important, and the further poisoning of our lands, our people, and our food, is acceptable by comparison, is just insanity. After all, do you actually know what you are talking about? To tell you the truth you sound just like the child king that sits in the White House. The same divisiveness, the same my way or the highway. Talk about ideological bs..
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the further poisoning of our lands, our people, and our food, is acceptable
"Acceptable" is relative; the problem is much larger; pesticides are just one manifestation.
The arguments -- while amusing -- are tiresome.
We, as a species, can do better than this; if not, we deserve to go extinct.
At this point it's really just a matter of how soon and by which "arms race".
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