Glyphosate and AMPA levels in human urine samples and their correlation with food consumption: results of the cross-sectional KarMeN study in Germany

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Abstract

Glyphosate ( N-[phosphonomethyl]-glycine) is the most widely used herbicide worldwide. Due to health concerns about glyphosate exposure, its continued use is controversially discussed. Biomonitoring is an important tool in safety evaluation and this study aimed to determine exposure to glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA, in association with food consumption data, in participants of the cross-sectional KarMeN study (Germany). Glyphosate and AMPA levels were measured in 24-h urine samples from study participants ( n = 301). For safety evaluation, the intake of glyphosate and AMPA was calculated based on urinary concentrations and checked against the EU acceptable daily intake (ADI) value for glyphosate. Urinary excretion of glyphosate and/or AMPA was correlated with food consumption data. 8.3% of the participants ( n = 25) exhibited quantifiable concentrations (> 0.2 µg/L) of glyphosate and/or AMPA in their urine. In 66.5% of the samples, neither glyphosate (< 0.05 µg/L) nor AMPA (< 0.09 µg/L) was detected. The remaining subjects ( n = 76) showed traces of glyphosate and/or AMPA. The calculated glyphosate and/or AMPA intake was far below the ADI of glyphosate. Significant, positive associations between urinary glyphosate excretion and consumption of pulses, or urinary AMPA excretion and mushroom intake were observed. Despite the widespread use of glyphosate, the exposure of the KarMeN population to glyphosate and AMPA was found to be very low. Based on the current risk assessment of glyphosate by EFSA, such exposure levels are not expected to pose any risk to human health. The detected associations with consuming certain foods are in line with reports on glyphosate and AMPA residues in food.

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Conclusion on the peer review of the pesticide risk assessment of the active substance glyphosate

(2015)

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Standardization of the 24-hour diet recall calibration method used in the european prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC): general concepts and preliminary results.

M Ocké, D Engeset, W Staveren … (2000)

Despite increasing interest in the concept of calibration in dietary surveys, there is still little experience in the use and standardization of a common reference dietary method, especially in international studies. In this paper, we present the general theoretical framework and the approaches developed to standardize the computer-assisted 24 h diet recall method (EPIC-SOFT) used to collect about 37 000 24-h dietary recall measurements (24-HDR) from the 10 countries participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). In addition, an analysis of variance was performed to examine the level of standardization of EPIC-SOFT across the 90 interviewers involved in the study. The analysis of variance used a random effects model in which mean energy intake per interviewer was used as the dependent variable, while age, body mass index (BMI), energy requirement, week day, season, special diet, special day, physical activity and the EPIC-SOFT version were used as independent variables. The analysis was performed separately for men and women. The results show no statistical difference between interviewers in all countries for men and five out of eight countries for women, after adjustment for physical activity and the EPIC-SOFT program version used, and the exclusion of one interviewer in Germany (for men), and one in Denmark (for women). These results showed an interviewer effect in certain countries and a significant difference between gender, suggesting an underlying respondent's effect due to the higher under-reporting among women that was consistently observed in EPIC. However, the actual difference between interviewer and country mean energy intakes is about 10%. Furthermore, no statistical differences in mean energy intakes were observed across centres from the same country, except in Italy and Germany for men, and France and Spain for women, where the populations were recruited from areas scattered throughout the countries. Despite these encouraging results and the efforts to standardize the 24-HDR interview method, conscious or unconscious behaviour of respondents and/or interviewer bias cannot be prevented entirely. Further evaluation of the reliability of EPIC-SOFT measurements will be conducted through validation against independent biological markers (nitrogen, potassium).

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Glyphosate in German adults - Time trend (2001 to 2015) of human exposure to a widely used herbicide.

Silvia Pieper, Marike Kolossa-Gehring, André Conrad … (2017)

The broadband herbicide glyphosate (N-[phosphonomethyl]-glycine) and its main metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) were analyzed by GC-MS-MS in 24h-urine samples cryo-archived by the German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB). Samples collected in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 were chosen for this retrospective analysis. All urine samples had been provided by 20 to 29 years old individuals living in Greifswald, a city in north-eastern Germany. Out of the 399 analyzed urine samples, 127 (=31.8%) contained glyphosate concentrations at or above the limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.1μg/L. For AMPA this was the case for 160 (=40.1%) samples. The fraction of glyphosate levels at or above LOQ peaked in 2012 (57.5%) and 2013 (56.4%) after having discontinuously increased from 10.0% in 2001. Quantification rates were lower again in 2014 and 2015 with 32.5% and 40.0%, respectively. The overall trend for quantifiable AMPA levels was similar. Glyphosate and AMPA concentrations in urine were statistically significantly correlated (spearman rank correlation coefficient=0.506, p≤0.001). Urinary glyphosate and AMPA levels tended to be higher in males. The possible reduction in exposure since 2013 indicated by ESB data may be due to changes in glyphosate application in agricultural practice. The ESB will continue monitoring internal exposures to glyphosate and AMPA for following up the time trend, elucidating inter-individual differences, and contributing to the ongoing debate on the further regulation of glyphosate-based pesticides.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Sabine E. Kulling:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9956-2702

sabine.kulling@mri.bund.de

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Arch Toxicol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Arch. Toxicol

Title: Archives of Toxicology

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (Berlin/Heidelberg )

ISSN (Print): 0340-5761

ISSN (Electronic): 1432-0738

Publication date (Electronic): 30 March 2020

Publication date PMC-release: 30 March 2020

Publication date (Print): 2020

Volume: 94

Issue: 5

Pages: 1575-1584

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.72925.3b, ISNI 0000 0001 1017 8329, Department of Safety and Quality of Fruit and Vegetables, , Max Rubner-Institut, ; Haid-und-Neu-Straße 9, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

[2 ]GRID grid.72925.3b, ISNI 0000 0001 1017 8329, Department of Physiology and Biochemistry of Nutrition, , Max Rubner-Institut, ; Karlsruhe, Germany

[3 ]GRID grid.72925.3b, ISNI 0000 0001 1017 8329, Department of Nutritional Behaviour, , Max Rubner-Institut, ; Karlsruhe, Germany

[4 ]GRID grid.72925.3b, ISNI 0000 0001 1017 8329, Max Rubner-Institut, ; Karlsruhe, Germany

Author information

Benedikt Merz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6856-3390

Achim Bub https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6907-5519

Bernhard Watzl https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0762-7423

Sabine E. Kulling https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9956-2702

Article

Publisher ID: 2704

DOI: 10.1007/s00204-020-02704-7

PMC ID: 7261737

PubMed ID: 32232512

SO-VID: 8474f914-9ead-4126-8b30-89dbc496eea1

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Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Date received : 24 January 2020

Date accepted : 9 March 2020

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Toxicology

Keywords: glyphosate,biomonitoring,urine,food consumption,correlation,human

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Toxicology

Keywords: glyphosate, biomonitoring, urine, food consumption, correlation, human

Glyphosate and AMPA levels in human urine samples and their correlation with food consumption: results of the cross-sectional KarMeN study in Germany

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Most cited references 20

Conclusion on the peer review of the pesticide risk assessment of the active substance glyphosate

Standardization of the 24-hour diet recall calibration method used in the european prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC): general concepts and preliminary results.

Glyphosate in German adults - Time trend (2001 to 2015) of human exposure to a widely used herbicide.

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