Herbicides, glyphosate resistance and acute mammalian toxicity: simulating an environmental effect of glyphosate-resistant weeds in the USA.

Background: With the emergence of glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds, the environmental consequences of alternatives to GR technology are of increasing importance. A well-known acute mammalian toxicity measure, the LD(50) dose for rats, is used to assess one potential environmental impact of the loss of GR technology. A new dataset with this index is used to estimate and simulate the effects for corn, soybeans and cotton.