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Monsanto-commissioned study finds cancer link unlikely

Programs ICONA just-released study by 15 scientists commissioned by Monsanto says glyphosate is unlikely to pose a cancer risk to humans.  The company sought the study after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, in a 2015 report, found the weed killer glyphosate “likely” causes cancer in humans. Monsanto and farmers criticized the IARC determination for not being based on sound science.

The new study is published online in the Journal of Critical Reviews in Toxicology.

A report released last week by the EPA – ahead of an EPA scientific advisory panel meeting on glyphosate next month, had similar conclusions as the Monsanto-commissioned study.

Monsanto provided this statement to Brownfield Ag News:

At Monsanto, we’re fully confident in the safety profile of our products. Our confidence is based on rigorous internal safety assessments in addition to safety assessments by regulatory authorities, independent researchers and other experts around the world. In July 2015, Monsanto retained a scientific consultant to convene an expert panel to review the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) monograph on glyphosate once it published. The charge to the experts was to take a thorough look at the data in the monograph, assess the scope of the research included or excluded, and publish their conclusions to allow for external review. The panel’s peer-reviewed findings recently were published in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology and are available here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408444.2016.1214677

The experts that make up the panel include medical doctors, cancer experts, and individuals who hold doctoral and other advanced degrees and who are experts in public health. The experts have spent their careers as researchers at major universities and medical schools, at research institutions and as consultants. For more information about the expert panel and its members, please click here.

These findings by the panel come at an important time, after so much unnecessary confusion and concern has been caused by IARC’s classification of glyphosate. The panel’s findings are consistent with the conclusions of regulatory authorities around the world. In fact, since IARC classified glyphosate, regulatory authorities in the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia have publicly reaffirmed that glyphosate does not cause cancer. Just last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced their conclusion that glyphosate should be classified as “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” Additionally, in May 2016, the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) concluded that “glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet.”

 

 

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