Experts Declare Glyphosate Herbicide (Roundup) a ‘Probable Carcinogen’

Reader Contribution by Cheryl Long
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Big news about Monsanto’s Roundup, the herbicide use­­d on many genetically modified crops: 17 experts from 11 countries in the Monograph Working Group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer have determined that glyphosate should be classified as a “probable human carcinogen.” This decision comes over 30 years after Monsanto began marketing glyphosate as Roundup and assuring the public it was perfectly safe. Use of Roundup on our food has increased with the adoption of genetically modified crops, and Monsanto has succeeded in convincing the EPA to increase the residue levels legally allowed on our food. Here’s what the experts had to say in the announcement in the medical journal Lancet Oncology:

“Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide, currently with the highest production volumes of all herbicides. It is used in more than 750 different products for agriculture, forestry, urban, and home applications. Its use has increased sharply with the development of genetically modified glyphosate-resistant crop varieties. Glyphosate has been detected in air during spraying, in water, and in food. There was limited evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of glyphosate. Case-control studies of occupational exposure in the USA, Canada, and Sweden reported increased risks for non-Hodgkin lymphoma that persisted after adjustment for other pesticides. The AHS cohort did not show a significantly increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In male CD-1 mice, glyphosate induced a positive trend in the incidence of a rare tumour, renal tubule carcinoma. A second study reported a positive trend for haemangiosarcoma in male mice.Glyphosate increased pancreatic islet-cell adenoma in male rats in two studies. A glyphosate formulation promoted skin tumours in an initiation-promotion study in mice.

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