What Is Glyphosate? Study Finds Weed Killer Linked To Cancer In Beer, Wine

Drinking popular brands of wine or beer might expose customers to a controversial herbicide, according to a new study published by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. According to U.S. PIRG, small amounts of the potentially dangerous substance glyphosate were found in products from Barefoot wine to Budweiser and Coors beers.

Glyphosate is one of the most prominent herbicides in the United States, according to the National Pesticide Information Center. The compound is often associated with the weed killer Roundup, which has been the subject of thousands of lawsuits around the country for allegations that it causes cancer.

Glyphosate has also been linked to colony collapse disorder, which causes widespread deaths of bees and negatively impacts ecosystems accordingly.

U.S. PIRG tested 14 beers, five wines and a brand of hard cider for traces of glyphosate. Every drink but one tested positively for signs of the herbicide, including three organic alcoholic drinks. Roundup and other weed killers like it are banned from use on crops that contribute to organic beverages.

The study found that some drinks contained as many as 51 parts per billion of glyphosate, with smaller amounts detected in the organic drinks. Those are not necessarily considered dangerous levels of glyphosate. Even so, the U.S. PIRG report recommended glyphosate be prohibited in the U.S..

"This chemical could prove a true risk to so many Americans' health, and they should know that it is everywhere -- including in many of their favorite drinks,” the study’s author Kara Cook-Schultz said in a statement.

Glyphosate and specifically Roundup were already in the news this week before the U.S. PIRG study was published. A lawsuit against Roundup’s parent company Bayer AG is set to go to federal court on Monday, with the allegation that the product causes cancer.

In total, there are 9,300 cases against Roundup in the U.S. More than 700 of them have been consolidated in the San Francisco federal court hearing starting Monday, according to Reuters. Bayer’s stock price tanked by 10 percent in August after a California state court ruled against the company for not properly warning consumers about cancer risk.