The discussion on the use of glyphosate, a chemical herbicide that for years has raised serious concerns about the consequences on human health and the environment, continues these days in Brussels. According to the conclusions of the European Chemicals Agency (Echa), the herbicide glyphosate is not carcinogenic.
Based on an extensive review of scientific evidence, such as five years ago, Echa concludes once again that the classification of glyphosate as a carcinogen is not justified.
The synthetic product is used in agriculture with some limitations placed in 2016, after the IARC, the WHO cancer research agency, had defined it a probable carcinogen for humans a year earlier, based on of about a thousand studies examined.
Despite this, in 2017 the European Union had authorized it as a herbicide for five years, at the end of which a new decision is expected based on other assessments. Decision expected at the end of 2022 on which already weighs a report published at the end of May by ECHA, the European agency that deals with chemicals, which has not decided to increase the level of risk for human health of glyphosate despite being confirmed that the substance causes serious eye damage and is toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects.
The committee of the European agency ECHA that has taken this position is made up of representatives of civil society, academia and industry, including therefore large farms that already use this pesticide. The report also specifies that the classification focuses only on the hazardous properties of the substance: its harmful potential. It does not assess the exposure of people or the environment to glyphosate.
It is sad to see that ECHA repeated its 2017 scientific negligence behavior. To reach its conclusions, the agency had to gloss over the tumors found in five mice and seven rats tested in studies investigating the substance's carcinogenicity. By doing this, not only did ECHA violate good scientific practices, but also its own guidelines and even European regulations, as demonstrated in many peer-reviewed studies.
The major inconsistencies in the scientific assessment by the EU of the genotoxicity and potential carcinogenicity of glyphosate, all the studies reviewed, including those from the pesticide manufacturers themselves, indicate that the substance has the potential to cause the cancer.
References:
https://www.politico.eu/article/glyphosate-not-carcinogenic-says-eu-chemicals-agency/
https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/155111
https://www.iarc.who.int/featured-news/media-centre-iarc-news-glyphosate/
