What is the Problem with Glyphosate?
Glyphosate is the pesticide with the greatest sales worldwide. It has attracted attention from regulators and the public; the latter because it was one of the first and is the most widely used herbicide for genetically modified (GM) crops. It has been used in the vast majority the countries on the planet for decades since its introduction in 1974.
Despite this long use, very few incidents other than short-term irritation of skin and eyes of humans have been observed in clinically investigated studies. Why then has the International Agency for Research on Cancer labelled it as a “probable human carcinogen”? Why then have the regulatory agencies, who have reviewed glyphosate prior to and since the IARC pronouncement, conclude that there is no strong evidence for carcinogenicity.
While some might ask “what is the problem with glyphosate?” Most of the regulatory and scientific community might well ask “what is the problem with IARC?” There are several problems with the IARC approach. These are discussed.
This is an abstract of the full article published in: Outlooks on Pest Management – August 2017 issue.
The full text of this article is available to subscribers of Outlooks on Pest Management.
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Author: Keith Solomon
Category: Public health
