Will the controversial Roundup soon be banned? The Minister of the Environment Ségolène Royal asked on Friday February 12, 2016 that the marketing of herbicides containing glyphosate and adjuvants such as “fatty amines of tallow” (or tallow amines) be prohibited in France by the end of the month of March 2016, because of the character carcinogenic probable of these compounds. Tallow amines, or polyoxyethylene amines, are added to weedkillers to enhance the herbicidal properties of glyphosate. The mixture of these two products is used in particular in the composition of Roundup, the flagship phytosanitary product of the American company Monsanto. This announcement follows a study commissioned by the ministryNational Food and Health Security Agency (Anses) and which concludes: “the mixing of glyphosate with certain co-formulants, in particular co-formulants of the tallow amine family, may present particular risks for users of the general public or the agricultural world“. Herbicides not containing adjuvants would be spared for the moment since the study did not make it possible to justify a probable carcinogenic classification of glyphosate alone.
Still timid bans
In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC or IARC), affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO), had recognized as probable or possible carcinogens five herbicides including the glyphosate contained in Roundup. In June, the Minister of the Environment then announced its desire to ban phytosanitary products based on glyphosate in garden centers. Finally, these herbicides are no longer available in the self-service section but are still available on request, at store counters. At the same time, Ségolène Royal has banned aerial spraying of these types of pesticides and their use in public gardens and green spaces.
Probable or unlikely carcinogen?
Roundup is the subject of a broad controversy, opposing several studies with divergent results. If the conclusions of the IARC last March are severe, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) wants to be more reassuring: in November 2015, it published a report that glyphosate is unlikely to be carcinogenic or could damage DNA. ANSES is now counting on the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to quickly reassess the classification of glyphosate, and the Minister of the Environment has asked ANSES to re-examine glyphosate-based herbicides. Case to follow.
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