This picture taken on September 09, 2019, shows a bottle of weedkilling containing glyphosate in Lille, northern France.

(Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP) -

AFP

  • FRSEA Bretagne disputes the validity of the tests used by environmental associations to analyze the level of glyphosate present in the urine of voluntary “pissers”.

  • The agricultural union believes that the associations are leading a campaign of "manipulation".

  • Despite Emmanuel Macron's promise to ban it, glyphosate is still authorized in Europe until at least the end of 2022.

Are the Elisa tests used by environmental associations to analyze the level of glyphosate present in the urine of voluntary “pissers” reliable?

No, according to the Regional Federation of Farmers' Unions (FRSEA) of Brittany, which believes that there is "an overestimation of flagrant detection" of the presence of glyphosate with these Elisa tests.

The union relies on the work of pharmacist and toxicologist Joël Guillemain, for whom "the only test which allows to decide is the test by chromatography".

During a press point organized on Tuesday, the scientist presented an analysis of "almost all of the scientific or general public literature on the subject", or 52 studies in total devoted to these tests for the detection of glyphosate, or by Elisa or by chromatography.

"There is a distortion of results between Elisa", a test initially designed for water and whose use has been extended to urine, he recalled, "and tests by chromatography".

"Any positive result for glyphosate should be confirmed by an alternative method," he said.

"The Elisa test is a hoax"

The head of the phytosanitary commission at the FRSEA, Jean-René Menier, a farmer in Morbihan, explained that he went to the Vannes hospital center in 2019 with other colleagues to be tested.

“At CH, we were told: 'there is only one real test, it is the chromatography'.

I had used glyphosate 48 hours earlier, and in the end, I had zero glyphosate in the urine, ”he said.

"I ask myself the question of the difference between objectivity and manipulation" in the press campaigns carried out against glyphosate, explained Jean-René Menier, supported by other union stakeholders denouncing the "manipulation" according to them carried out by environmental associations on these glyphosate tests.

"We want to demonstrate that, on a scientific file like this, we should not take a decision lightly," said another representative of the FRSEA, considering that "the Elisa test is a hoax".

Banning glyphosate would open the door to many other products that are no doubt more toxic, ”he said.

The authorization of the herbicide in Europe runs until the end of 2022

At the end of 2020, Emmanuel Macron had admitted not having succeeded in keeping his promise to exit in three years from glyphosate, an exit long requested by associations because of its advanced effects on insects and ecosystems.

The Elysée had indicated that the president wanted to bring the issue to the European level, where for the moment only Luxembourg has committed to do without glyphosate by the end of 2020. The current authorization of glyphosate in the Union European Union runs until the end of 2022.

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