Posted April 3, 2014
Sen. Ed
Markey (D-Mass.) is asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
evaluate the herbicide glyphosate, one of the world’s most widely used weed
killers. after concerns that the chemical possibly causes cancer, according to
The Hill article available here.
Capital Press also published an article available here
and Fortune here.
The United
Nations World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC) released a scientific assessment of five organophosphate pesticides last
week that found that the insecticides malathion and diazinon, and herbicide
glyphosate are “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
IARC also
found that parathion and tetrachlorvinphos, found in pet flea treatments, are
“possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
Glyphosate,
key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, has been around since 1970 and has been
reviewed by multiple regulatory bodies, including the EPA. The EPA originally
determined that it might cause cancer, but reversed its decision six years later
after re-evaluating the study, according to Fortune.
Sales from Monsanto’s “agriculture productivity products,”
which includes Roundup and similar items, account for about a third of the
company’s annual revenue.
CEO Hugh Grant said that he didn’t see the issue impacting
the business, and that the company will continue to support the product. He
called it “unfortunate noise” and a “distraction rather than a reality.”
Michael
Greenberg, a physician who is chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at
Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, said IARC should “take
another look at this,” according to Capital
Press.
“From what
I can tell, the IARC didn’t really consider all the evidence,” said Greenberg.
“There are enormous studies that show glyphosate does not cause cancer.”
A group of
advocacy groups have asked the Obama administration to “weigh heavily” WHO’s
findings.
In a
letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Just Label It, Consumers Union, the
Center for Food Safety, Environmental Working Group and the Natural Resources
Defense Council, and others wrote the agency should consider the findings as it
prepares its preliminary risk assessment of the widely used herbicides under
the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.
For more information on pesticides, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
