By Joe Cingrana
New tests have shown that a weed-killing chemical -- found normally in pesticides -- has reportedly shown up in some of your favorite breakfast cereals.
Washington, D.C. advocacy group the Environmental Working Group, which assesses chemicals in consumer products, released their results of a test conducted on popular American oat-based products -- think like Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Nature Valley bars, and others -- after trying to determine whether they contained any herbicides.
The chemical in question, Glyphosate, is the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weed killer and at high levels has been linked to cancer.
After testing 45 samples of conventionally grown oats and 16 samples of organically grown oats -- in 43 of the 45 conventional cases, glyphosate was detected. In 31 of those cases, levels were above the EWG's 160 parts per billion health benchmark.
Correction: A previous version of this story included KIND bars among the oat-based products. KIND bars fell below the EWG threshold of 160 ppb.
