As member state experts prepare to debate the proposal on the 10-year renewal of the licence for Glyphosate in the EU on 5 or 6 October, the findings of an investigation published on 14 September by environmental NGO Générations futures that reveal the presence of residues of this highly controversial pesticide in common foods is sure to ramp up pressure on the European Commission and the member states (see EUROPE 11852).
The study reveals that 53.3% of the samples of cereal-based products and pulses tested in the laboratory, 16 of the 30 samples, contained Glyphosate residues. Three samples, or 10%, also contained AMPA – a degradation product of Glyphosate.
François Veillerette, head of the NGO, said: “It is, then, a matter of urgency that the European Union stops using this substance that has been classified as a probable human carcinogen by IARC and brings about a radical change in its agricultural model which has become too dependent on synthetic pesticides”.
On the same day, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, an NGO that works for sustainable use of pesticides, armed with the findings of new study, criticised the Commission (DG Health) for continuing to approve the use of potentially carcinogenic pesticides as standard procedure and allowing industry to confirm, through the “confirmatory information procedure”, at a later stage that the pesticide residues are not carcinogenic – a practice criticised by the European Ombudsman (see EUROPE 11763). This was the procedure used in July in re-authorisation of the pesticide Maleic Hydrazine which contains a genotoxic impurity (Hydrazine) with a 1B-classification for carcinogenicity and could, also, end up in our food, PAN Europe states. Of 12 pesticides examined, DG Health imposed restrictions on the use of only Buprofezin and Difflubenzuron.
The European Commission, through Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, has several times indicated that it considers the scientific debate over the possible carcinogenicity of glyphosate for humans to be closed. This after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) – in contradiction with the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer – concluded that the active substance glyphosate is probably not carcinogenic for humans (see EUROPE 11831 and 11807).
The Générations Futures report can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2yjj4Q6 PAN Europe report can be viewed at: http://bit.ly/2xDsrgF. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)