by Emily Weaver
Diquat is 200 times more toxic than glyphosate, per a report.
For avid golfers, living near a putting green may sound like a dream come true. We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but studies show that living near a golf course can increase your risk of Parkinson’s disease by 126 percent due to the weed killers and pesticides, like Roundup, used on most fairways. While Roundup has taken strides to “cleanify” its formula, new research says there’s more work to be done.
Roundup’s New Formula Still Contains Hazardous Toxins.
In Oct. 2024, Roundup transitioned its residential formulas from being glyphosate-based to diquat-based. At the time, diquat was widely believed to be a safer alternative to glyphosate.
Glyphosate is an active ingredient that’s used for managing “invasive and noxious weeds” in both agricultural and residential/commercial settings, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It’s most notably found in Roundup products, particularly the brand’s weed sprayers.
Glyphosate has been a registered pesticide in the U.S. since 1974, though it’s banned in the U.K., European Union, and China. Research centers have been fighting to get it outlawed in the U.S.—but the EPA doesn’t view glyphosate as a potential human or ecological threat.
In Feb. 2020, the EPA sided against International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) data and reported that glyphosate “is unlikely to be a human carcinogen.” Doubling down on their findings, the EPA reported that “there are no risks of concern to human health” and “the benefits of glyphosate outweigh the potential ecological risks when glyphosate is used in accordance with labels.”
However, this didn’t quite quell public concerns. In Oct. 2024, parent company Bayer announced it would “no longer [be] producing glyphosate-based Roundup products for the U.S. residential lawn and garden market.” Bayer replaced glyphosate with four other active ingredients, including diquat.
In response, the nonprofit organization Friends of the Earth released an analysis that proved all four substitutes “pose greater risk of long-term and/or reproductive health problems than glyphosate.” According to their findings, these chemicals have been associated with the following conditions:
- Birth and development abnormalities
- Reproductive dysfunction
- Kidney and liver damage
- Irritation, inflammation, and allergic reactions affecting the skin, eyes, and respiratory system
Most shockingly, diquat was dubbed “the worst offender” of the four weed killers. “It is 200 times more chronically toxic than glyphosate, is classified as a highly hazardous pesticide, and is banned in the European Union,” per the report.
Since then, additional research has come out corroborating the Friends of the Earth analysis.
