CropLife America welcomes glyphosate review EU

CropLife America (CLA), the U.S. trade association representing the crop protection industry, welcomes the recently released review by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that confirms the long history of safe use of the herbicide glyphosate. The newly completed, comprehensive review by EFSA concludes that the widely used product is “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans.”

“This is a crucial and science-based peer review that raises important questions about the selective inclusion and interpretation of data by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that led to an inconsistent and erroneous conclusion earlier this year,” noted Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CLA. EFSA says it reached the new conclusion by assessing more evidence which included additional key studies not considered by IARC. Vroom added, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also underway with a new risk assessment for glyphosate, which CLA eagerly awaits.”

According to CLA, IARC’s work includes a wide landscape of product safety evaluations, and their flawed process has led the organization to label many everyday items as possible carcinogens, such as coffee or pickled vegetables.

CLA members actively support science-based regulation, and CLA believes that the thorough risk assessment method used by most pesticide regulators is a more logical and scientific approach for product evaluation as compared to the limited studies and hazard-only evaluation process followed by IARC.

For more information:
CropLife America
www.CropLifeAmerica.org