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A bitter row has broken out over the allegedly carcinogenic qualities of a widely-used weedkiller, ahead of an EU decision on whether to continue to allow its use.
At issue isย a call by the European Food and Safety Authorityย (Efsa) to disregard an opinion by the WHOโs International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on the health effects of Glyphosate.
. . . [W]hile an analysis by the IARC last year found it isย probably carcinogenic to humans, Efsa decided last month thatย it probably was not. That paves the way for the herbicide to be relicensed by an EU working group later this year, potentially in the next few weeks.
Within days of Efsaโs announcement, 96 prominent scientists โ including most of the IARC team โ had fired offย a letter to the EU health commissioner, Vytenis Andriukaitis, warning that the basis of Efsaโs research was โnot credible because it is not supported by the evidenceโ.ย . .
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. . .ย Efsaโs executive director Bernard Url hit back,ย complaining to the European parliamentโs environment committeeย that the scientists had not seen the evidence, and were leaving the domain of science by making their criticisms public. . .
Inย a letter sent January 13, Url defended Efsaโs study as a โmore comprehensive hazard assessmentโ than the IARC paper which, he said, had not tried to differentiate between the carcinogenic effects of glyphosate and other ingredients in pesticide packages, or their combined effects.
Efsa and IARC had agreed to meet early in 2016 โin an effort to clarify scientific divergences,โ Url added.
Read full, original post:ย EU scientists in row over safety of Glyphosate weedkiller
