Human exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides and methods to reduce exposure

The herbicide glyphosate (“Round-Up”) is the most commonly used herbicide in Australia and worldwide, being widely used to control weeds in agriculture, forestry, park maintenance, and by home gardeners. Glyphosate has increasingly become a focus of public and political awareness due to potential adverse health effects, coupled with its high frequency of use. Nevertheless, data on human exposure is lacking both internationally and in Australia. Exposure rates in the general population and occupational populations are important to advise users on how to use glyphosate-based herbicides safely.

This project will be the first study in Australia to systematically examine occupational exposure to glyphosate. Biomonitoring data (human urine and dermal swabs) will be assessed alongside glyphosate spraying methods and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This targeted approach will allow for a better understanding of glyphosate exposure, enabling more comprehensive human and environmental risk assessments to be undertaken.

We will study a group of workers spraying glyphosate to determine:

What are the urinary levels of glyphosate before and after a day of spraying?
What tasks are associated with higher urinary and dermal levels?
Does glyphosate accumulate if workers spray for several days?

Glyphosate in Australian wastewater-treatment plants will also be determined to explain glyphosate use in the Australian population.

Research Outputs

Campbell, G., Tscharke, B.J., Prasad, P., Knight, E.R., Reeks, T., Jackson, A., Thomas, K.V., Mueller, J.F. and Kaserzon, S.L., 2025. Occurrence and fate of glyphosate and AMPA in wastewater treatment plants in Australia. Science of The Total Environment, 969, p.178964.

Campbell, G., Mannetje, A., Keer, S., Eaglesham, G., Wang, X., Lin, C.Y., Hobson, P., Toms, L.M., Douwes, J., Thomas, K.V. and Mueller, J.F., 2022. Characterization of glyphosate and AMPA concentrations in the urine of Australian and New Zealand populations. Science of the Total Environment, 847, p.157585.

Conference Abstracts

Campbell, G. Estimation of glyphosate and AMPA mass loads from twenty-two wastewater treatment plants across Australia, SETAC Europe 34^th Annual Meeting, Seville, Spain, 5-9 May 2024.

Campbell, G., Tscharke, B., Eaglesham, G., Thomas, K.V., Mueller, J.F., Kaserzon, S. Glyphosate concentrations and mass loads in influent and effluent from 15 wastewater treatment plants in Australia using passive samplers, International Passive Sampling Workshop, Utrecht, Netherlands, 18-22 September 2022.

Media Releases

Industry Placement

Garth completed a 3 month Industry Placement at Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water of Australia in Sydney, New South Wales.