Despite the World Health Organization’s recent declaration that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen, EFSA has concluded otherwise.
An’expert group’ of EFSA scientists and EU state risk assessment bodies (read: insurance men in suits) have finalised their own re-assessment of glyphosate, a chemical found in pesticides. They have decided that glyphosate is unlikely to cause genotoxic or carcinogenic threat, but propose new safety measures, tightening the control of levels of Roundup in food. I do wonder if EFSA is preparing itself so that if evidence on the herbicide’s risks make it untenable for the agency to claim safety in the future.
The European Commission will use this decision to work out whetherthey include glyphosate in their list of approved active substances. The report also contained the first Acute Reference Dose for glyphosate – 0.5mg/kg body weight – this is the estimated chemical intake over a short period that EFSA deems to cause no harm.
I’d love to see the EFSA scientists responsible for this decision consume 30 mg of glyphosate daily in a RoundUp capsule to be had with their breakfast, lunch or dinner, and are considering presenting them with this as a challenge.
I remember a story of diplomats at the US Embassy in Hanoi after the war demonstrating the safety of Roundup to an assembled local press by drinking a glass of it. And yet the evidence of the terrible results of indiscriminate use of this chemical, in deformed kids, was everywhere and impossible to disregard.
