This time of year, it’s a common sight to see homeowners carrying large jugs of Roundup and spraying driveways, sidewalk cracks and roadsides. It’s always astonishing to see people wearing shorts and sandals as they spray. They give no thought to chemical drift.

In July, it’s always discouraging to see uniformly dry fields of wheat that have likely been sprayed with glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Since wheat is especially finicky when it comes to drying before harvest, it has become a common practice to spray wheat as well as oats, barley, chickpeas and lentils just before harvest to uniformly kill the plants. There is no regard for pesticide residue left on food.

Home use of Roundup is about to change. Bayer, the manufacturer, announced the cost of litigation is too high and it will phase out glyphosate by 2023 for lawn and garden use. However, it will continue to sell Roundup for professional and agricultural markets.

Henry Rowlands, director of the Detox Project, said in a statement: “It is a great victory in a small battle for the removal of glyphosate from the lawn and garden market, however this is just part of a much larger war. We must all remember that this will not stop glyphosate being sprayed in parks, schools and on our food crops in ever greater amounts across the U.S. and the world. It is time to phase the chemical out globally and to replace it with safe alternatives.”

The widely documented harm caused by glyphosate is reviewed in a new book by Stephanie Seneff, “Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment.”

Seneff, a senior research scientist at MIT, spoke via zoom shortly after the release of her book. “Toxic Legacy” been called the “Silent Spring” of our time.

The agri-chemical industry insists glyphosate is safe when used according to manufacturer’s directions. But many scientists disagree and consider glyphosate an endocrine disruptor that causes harm with small doses over time. That counters once common assumptions that only high exposure to toxins are problematic.

Seneff said that accumulation of harm over time makes it difficult to trace disease back to a single chemical exposure. She also cited the epigenetic accumulation of harm over generations. Exposure by one generation can cause harm in future generations, she said, contending our regulatory agencies are failing to accurately monitor and restrict use of glyphosate and other toxins.

She said tolerance levels in food are being increased due to industry lobbying, and she cites skyrocketing rates of gluten intolerance as a result.

“Look for certified organic. It can be labeled non GMO but you need to look for the organic label,” she said.

Glyphosate is pervasive and long lived in the environment, she said, citing research in Canada that found levels in trees 12 years after treatment.

As GMO crops proliferated in the 1980s, so did the use of Roundup resistant crops but not just for food. Seneff says biofuels from Roundup Ready crops could be poisoning the air in major cities and locations far removed from farm fields.

She cites research showing glyphosate disrupts the gut microbiome and that can result in ailments ranging from depression, anxiety and obesity to cancer, infertility, autism, liver disease, kidney disease and birth defects as well as food allergies.

Pervasive pesticide use kills microbes in soil. Seneff cites dead soil that does not absorb water as a contributing factor to drought and the increased prevalence of wildfires. Healthy soil teeming with microorganisms sequesters carbon and that helps counters climate change.

However, she worries that banning glyphosate could result in substitutions with even more toxic chemicals. As weeds develop resistance to glyphosate, mixtures are being used with dicamba and 2,4-D. She calls these “chemical cocktails.”

Rather than a chemical ban, it’s better to promote organic and renewable agriculture, she said.

Roundup is the most commonly used herbicide in the world.

The Organic Consumer Association wrote, “In this book, which has been a labor of love for the past decade, Seneff explains how and why glyphosate poses an existential threat to humanity, and why it’s so important to avoid it if you care about your health and the health of your family.”