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Question

In response to, does glyphosphate cause cancer you quoted a WHO source from 1987. Didnt the WHO recently change this opinion? I believe they now consider glyphosphate a a likely carcinogen.

Submitted by: gallimrr


Answer

Expert response from Community Manager

Friday, 11/12/2015 12:45

The World Health Organization (WHO) does not consider glyphosate to be a carcinogen. The opinion you reference is from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is one of four WHO programs that have reviewed glyphosate, and the only program to arrive at such a finding. IARC’s classification is inconsistent with the three other WHO programs and also with regulatory agencies around the world, none of which consider glyphosate to be a carcinogen.

 

Regulatory agencies have reviewed all the key studies examined by IARC – and many more – and arrived at the overwhelming consensus that glyphosate poses no unreasonable risks to humans or the environment when used according to label instructions. Most recently, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced its conclusions that “glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans and the evidence does not support classification with regard to its carcinogenic potential.” The EFSA conclusion builds upon the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency preliminary reevaluation decision issued in April 2015 after spending over two years evaluating the data and they concluded that “the overall weight of evidence indicates that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a human cancer risk.”

 

Glyphosate safety is supported by one of the most extensive human health, crop residue and environmental databases ever compiled on a pesticide product. Many of those studies – from Monsanto, independent researchers and other manufacturers and registrants of glyphosate – are publicly available here.

 

I hope this information was helpful. 

Answer

Expert response from Community Manager

Friday, 11/12/2015 12:45

The World Health Organization (WHO) does not consider glyphosate to be a carcinogen. The opinion you reference is from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is one of four WHO programs that have reviewed glyphosate, and the only program to arrive at such a finding. IARC’s classification is inconsistent with the three other WHO programs and also with regulatory agencies around the world, none of which consider glyphosate to be a carcinogen.

 

Regulatory agencies have reviewed all the key studies examined by IARC – and many more – and arrived at the overwhelming consensus that glyphosate poses no unreasonable risks to humans or the environment when used according to label instructions. Most recently, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced its conclusions that “glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans and the evidence does not support classification with regard to its carcinogenic potential.” The EFSA conclusion builds upon the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency preliminary reevaluation decision issued in April 2015 after spending over two years evaluating the data and they concluded that “the overall weight of evidence indicates that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a human cancer risk.”

 

Glyphosate safety is supported by one of the most extensive human health, crop residue and environmental databases ever compiled on a pesticide product. Many of those studies – from Monsanto, independent researchers and other manufacturers and registrants of glyphosate – are publicly available here.

 

I hope this information was helpful.