The European Commission recently recommended approval for continued use of the most widely used pesticide in the world. It concluded Glyphosate; the main ingredient in “Round Up,” poses no unacceptable risk to human health, animals or the environment – but not everyone is convinced of the pesticide’s long-term safety.
Glyphosate, known by the trade name, ‘Round Up’ was invented by Monsanto in the 1970s and came into wider use in the 90s. Today some 300 million pounds of it are applied annually to crops around the world. It’s credited with increasing yields, and many scientists consider it one of the safest weed killers there is.
But skeptics about its safety have continued to follow it like spring follows winter, despite the company’s efforts to address concerns and allay fears.
As stated in one Monsanto Company Video, “In fact, in addition to the EPA, regulatory agencies in more than 160 countries have approved Glyphosate based products….”
This recent recommendation for Glyphosate’s continued use in Europe has activists here worried about what the US Environmental Protection Agency will do when it tackles the same issue. EPA reviews pesticides every 15 years to include the latest studies. Jenn Sass, an expert on pesticides and Toxic Chemicals has been working with the Natural Resources Defense Council for 15 years. She says the EC’s decision ignores the findings of the International Association for Research on Cancer which say Glyphosate is likely carcinogenic.
“This decision follows a report by the World Health Organization’s cancer expert arm called IARC and that expert panel reviewed all of the data that was available on the potential for Glyphosate to be linked to cancer in humans And putting all that data together that panel had a unanimous decision that Glyphosate was linked to cancer, particularly Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas.”
According to a spokesperson from Monsanto, the IARC was the only one of four bodies of the World Health Organization to have come up with that negative finding. Sass contends, the other studies were done by people with industry ties.
“To us it feels like the game was rigged and it was very anti-science and the ultimate possibility is that we’ll have these carcinogens on our food still.”
Last March when the IARC released its finding calling Glyphosate a possible carcinogen, Monsanto released a statement saying it was outraged by that assessment. Now that the European Commission has come out with the opposite recommendation, the company has released another statement saying, “The authority’s conclusions on glyphosate align with conclusions from regulatory agencies around the world.”
Jim Westwood is professor of weed science at Virginia Tech who has worked with Glyphosate for many years and considers it to be safe. He suggests what’s changed that perception is its new use in connection with crops genetically modified to be Round Up resistant.
“For the US where we accept genetically modified crops, that has caused an increase in Glyphosate usage. In Europe, where GMO crops are not that accepted, I don’t see this as a big change for them. It’s more accepting the status quo.”
Even though Glyphosate is the most popular pesticide, there are thousands of chemicals being used around the world and more developed all the time. Sandra Yi, a professor of toxicology at Virginia Tech says that makes it difficult to gage the health effects of exposure on one chemical on people or animals. The bottom line she says, is these issues are complex and people are making decisions with limited information.
“If there is a public movement to take a closer look or people start raising the question, I think that’s important too because that pushes governments and agencies to re-evaluate it on a constant basis so I think it’s a good conversation to have.”
In coming months the European Union’s 28 member states will vote on whether to give final approval to the executive committee’s recommendation for Glyphosate’s continued use there. The US EPA was supposed to have tackled the issue by the end of this year. So far it has not even begun its public comment period on whether the pesticides’ designation as safe for use in the U.S., should continue for another 15 years.
