Glyphosate
Glyphosate·Affects liver, kidneys, reproductive
The active ingredient in Roundup and the most widely used herbicide on the planet. IARC classifies it as probably carcinogenic; EPA disagrees. Federally regulated at 0.7 mg/L in US drinking water.
Glyphosate
EPA limit
0.7 mg/L (MCL)
Most at risk
Rural well-water households, agricultural workers, families adjacent to row-crop fields
Found in
City water · Well water
AquaOx filters
YesActivated coconut shell carbon
What it does to you
Health effects
Glyphosate sits at one of the most contested intersections in environmental toxicology. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified it in Group 2A (probably carcinogenic to humans) in 2015, based primarily on epidemiological evidence linking occupational exposure to non-Hodgkin lymphoma and on animal studies showing tumor formation. The US EPA has reviewed the same evidence and reached a different conclusion, classifying glyphosate as "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans" at typical exposure levels. The European Food Safety Authority and several other regulators side closer to the EPA position.
Reasonable scientists disagree, and the disagreement turns on how to weight occupational versus general-population exposure, how to interpret rodent tumor data, and whether the surfactants in commercial Roundup formulations contribute toxicity beyond glyphosate itself. The honest summary: there is real scientific evidence of harm at occupational exposure levels, and the magnitude of risk at lower environmental exposure levels remains debated.
Beyond the cancer question, chronic exposure is associated with liver and kidney damage in animal studies, effects on the gut microbiome, and reproductive and developmental effects at high doses. The EPA's MCL of 0.7 mg/L is set with a safety factor below levels that produced effects in chronic animal feeding studies.
Where it comes from
How it gets into your water
Glyphosate is applied to hundreds of millions of acres of US cropland each year, mostly to glyphosate-tolerant ("Roundup Ready") corn, soybean, cotton, and canola. It is also widely used in residential lawn care, roadside vegetation control, and pre-harvest desiccation of wheat and oats.
Glyphosate binds tightly to soil particles, which initially keeps it out of groundwater compared to more mobile herbicides like atrazine. The contamination route is mostly surface runoff during storms: rain washes glyphosate-bound soil and dissolved residue into streams, rivers, and reservoirs. The USGS detects glyphosate and its primary breakdown product AMPA in a large fraction of US surface waters during the growing season.
Private wells can pick up glyphosate where shallow groundwater is influenced by surface water, where high-volume application happens directly upgradient, or where well construction allows surface infiltration.
Roundup Ready crop fields
Corn, soybean, cotton, canola
Pre-harvest desiccation
Sprayed on wheat and oats before harvest
Residential lawn care
Roundup is the top-selling consumer herbicide
Surface water utilities
Detected in rivers and reservoirs during growing season
Find out for yourself
Is it in your water?
Glyphosate is on the EPA's regulated contaminant list, so all community water systems must test for it and report results in the annual Consumer Confidence Report. Detections in finished municipal water are generally well below the 0.7 mg/L MCL, but the limit is relatively permissive compared to other regulated pesticides; many environmental health groups argue it should be lower.
Private well owners in agricultural regions should request a glyphosate test from a state-certified lab. Most standard well-water panels do not include glyphosate by default; you have to specify it. AMPA, the primary breakdown product, is a useful indicator and is often detected alongside or instead of the parent compound.
The fix
How AquaOx filters it
Glyphosate is filtered efficiently by activated carbon. The coconut shell carbon stage in The AquaOx adsorbs glyphosate as water passes through, with independent testing on similar GAC systems showing strong reductions across the herbicide family.
For well-water households in row-crop regions, we recommend pairing The AquaOx with our FE Edition or RE Edition if iron or hydrogen sulfide is also present, and adding the under-sink RO at the kitchen tap for an additional polish on drinking and cooking water. RO membranes provide effective second-stage rejection of glyphosate and AMPA.