For the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), glyphosate is still not a potential carcinogen. In a new opinion issued on Monday 30 May, ECHA’s Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) maintains glyphosate’s current classification as causing serious eye damage and being toxic to aquatic life, but again concludes, after reviewing the scientific evidence, that the classification of glyphosate as a carcinogen is not justified.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in a highly controversial pesticide, is under review for possible renewal in the EU when the current licence expires on 15 December 2022.
The ECHA opinion is in line with the results of the preliminary assessment by four rapporteur Member States (France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden) which concluded that this pesticide is safe (see EUROPE 12841/13).
ECHA’s opinion will be submitted to the European Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) by mid-August. It should be remembered that EFSA has just postponed its final scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of glyphosate (see EUROPE 12950/14) for one year.
NGOs are concerned. TheHealth and Environment Alliance (HEAL), the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and ClientEarth, which are attending the RAC as civil society observers, immediately expressed their “deep concerns”. According to these NGOs, the failure of the RAC to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen suggests that important arguments made by independent scientific experts have not been properly considered.
“Similar to the 2017 opinion on the hazard potential of glyphosate, the European Chemicals Agency has once again dismissed the scientific arguments on the pesticide’s carcinogenicity and genotoxicity brought by independent experts. The failure to recognise the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate is a mistake, and should be considered as a big step backwards in the fight against cancer”, lamented Dr Angeliki Lyssimachou, HEAL’s Senior Science Policy Officer. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)