Last Monday, the European Commissioner for Health asked Monsanto to make public studies on the risks associated with glyphosate.
The European institutions are finally reacting. While the renewal of the use of glyphosate seemed acquired in Europe, the concerns of public opinion, relayed by politicians, threw a little sand in the wheels. European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis has sent a letter to Monsanto asking that studies on the toxicity of the base compound of RoundUp weedkiller be made public.
“The process put in place to authorize glyphosate has drawn extraordinary public attention and concern, especially in the European Parliament, over the transparency of the assessment,” writes Vytenis Andriukaitis to Richard Garnett of Monsanto Europe. In order to facilitate the decision-making process and to strengthen confidence in the current European procedure, I invite the Glyphosate Task Fund (GTF) to proactively publish all the studies provided to EFSA. “
Monsanto vs. WHO
This is another step in the direction of environmental associations who have been fighting against this product for many years. The debate was reopened in 2015 following two contradictory events. In March, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) – an organization dependent on the World Health Organization – issued an unfavorable opinion. Based on the scientific literature resulting from academic and public research, he had classified glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen (1)”.
A few months later, the European Food Agency (EFSA) had yet issued a favorable opinion for the re-approval of the weedkiller for fifteen years, based on secret toxicity reports. These studies were carried out by a group of agrochemical manufacturers, GTF, under the leadership of Monsanto.
MEPs will decide
In early March 2016, when the authorization was due to be renewed, the representatives of France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy had pushed for the toxicity of glyphosate to be reassessed, and the European Commission had postponed the vote.
Visibly heard claims. On March 22, the Commission for the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) supported the requests of these states by issuing a resolution, which insists that the active ingredient in RoundUp should not be allowed without restrictions. The future of RoundUp will be in the hands of MEPs next week. A vote must indeed take place on the resolution of the ENVI.
(1)) The IARC classification provides for 5 levels of carcinogenic risks. Glyphosate is in class 2A, the second highest after “known carcinogen”. It means that the carcinogenic action has been demonstrated in animals, but not with certainty in humans. On the other hand, similar mechanisms of appearance of cancer in humans and animals suggest that the product is also carcinogenic in humans.
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