The European Parliament’s Agriculture and Environment Committees held a joint hearing on Wednesday with speakers from both sides of the glyphosate debate.
Tim Bowmer, chairman of the European Chemical Agency (ECHA)’s Committee for Risk Assessment, defended his agency’s assessment that glyphosate does not cause cancer. After excluding studies that did not meet its standards, all ECHA experts on the committee agreed on the basis of existing data on rats, mice and humans that “no classification for carcinogenicity is warranted”.
Prof Christopher J. Portier of Maastricht University, also a consultant to law firms in glyphosate cases and environmental organisations, criticised heatlh authorities’ assessments in the US and in the EU, saying that they had disregarded up to half of cancer cases detected in animal studies of exposure to glyphosate.
’Ghost writing”
Investigative journalist Carey Gillam showed internal Monsanto documents released in the courts in the US where company staff discussed “ghost writing” scientific assessments of glyphosate’s toxicity.
The manufacturer’s representatives refused to attend the meeting, alleging it was biased.
A delegation from the IFA and its UK counterpart, the NFU, which have both been campaigning to retain the use of glyphosate, attended the meeting. They met Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness, who is a member of the Agriculture Committee (pictured).
There was no decision on the re-authorisation of the herbicide ingredient glyphosate at an EU expert committee meeting last week. The current license for Monsanto’s Roundup and similar products expires at the end of this year. The next committee meeting is scheduled for 23 October, but its not yet clear whether a qualified majority of EU member states will emerge by then.
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Full coverage: glyphosate
The European Parliament’s Agriculture and Environment Committees held a joint hearing on Wednesday with speakers from both sides of the glyphosate debate.
Tim Bowmer, chairman of the European Chemical Agency (ECHA)’s Committee for Risk Assessment, defended his agency’s assessment that glyphosate does not cause cancer. After excluding studies that did not meet its standards, all ECHA experts on the committee agreed on the basis of existing data on rats, mice and humans that “no classification for carcinogenicity is warranted”.
Prof Christopher J. Portier of Maastricht University, also a consultant to law firms in glyphosate cases and environmental organisations, criticised heatlh authorities’ assessments in the US and in the EU, saying that they had disregarded up to half of cancer cases detected in animal studies of exposure to glyphosate.
’Ghost writing”
Investigative journalist Carey Gillam showed internal Monsanto documents released in the courts in the US where company staff discussed “ghost writing” scientific assessments of glyphosate’s toxicity.
The manufacturer’s representatives refused to attend the meeting, alleging it was biased.
A delegation from the IFA and its UK counterpart, the NFU, which have both been campaigning to retain the use of glyphosate, attended the meeting. They met Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness, who is a member of the Agriculture Committee (pictured).
There was no decision on the re-authorisation of the herbicide ingredient glyphosate at an EU expert committee meeting last week. The current license for Monsanto’s Roundup and similar products expires at the end of this year. The next committee meeting is scheduled for 23 October, but its not yet clear whether a qualified majority of EU member states will emerge by then.
Read more
France backs down on glyphosate
Farmer writes: agriculture without Roundup is a return to the dark ages
Full coverage: glyphosate
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