Pressure mounting for use of glyphosate, listed by WHO since 2015 as probable carcinogen, to be heavily restricted
Children are potentially being exposed to the controversial weedkiller glyphosate at playgrounds across the UK, campaigners have said after testing playgrounds in London and the home counties.
The World Health Organization has listed glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen since 2015. However, campaigners say local authorities in the UK are still using thousands of litres of glyphosate-based herbicides in public green spaces.
Campaigners from the Pesticides Action Network (Pan) UK took swabs and soil samples at 13 playgrounds in Kent, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, Tower Hamlets and Hackney. They found traces of glyphosate or its breakdown product aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) at eight of them.
The only area where no trace of the herbicide was found was in Hackney, which went glyphosate-free in public green spaces in 2021.
