04
Sep
Health and Environmental Groups Call on EPA to Revoke Glyphosate’s Registration
(Beyond Pesticides, September 4, 2019) Sixteen organizations representing health, environmental, farmer, and farmworker communities joined together yesterday to call on EPA to remove glyphosate from the marketplace. The groups cite a combination of high-profile lawsuits, environmental impacts, increasing reports of weed resistance, and growing public concern over the health effects of glyphosate in their comments on EPA’s interim reregistration review decision for the chemical.
The comments warn that EPA is at risk of damaging the public’s trust in the agency’s review process for toxic pesticides. “EPA’s myopic review and response to the dangers posed by glyphosate does a disservice to American farmers, farmworkers, and commercial landscapers wishing to use least-toxic products that do not put them at risk of health impacts, and consumers aiming to make the safest choice in regards to what to feed their family and how to manage their yards,” the comments read.
The document likewise replies to EPA’s attacks against the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which determined glyphosate to be a probable carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental organisms. EPA has indicated that its process for evaluating glyphosate, “…is more transparent than IARC’s process” and that IARC’s “…conclusions are not well described.” The comments cite IARC’s response to these criticisms, which discuss the need to avoid “…interference from vested interests” and the ability to “…scrutinize the basis of its decisions rather than relying on appeals to authority or trust.”
The comments take aim at EPA’s attempt to sow doubt in IARC’s process, writing, “It is also unacceptable for the agency to attack highly esteemed scientific institutions like the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which has been at the forefront of scientific determinations on carcinogenicity since its founding prior to EPA in 1965.”
EPA has refused to test end-use glyphosate products sold on store shelves, saying “…though the Agency evaluates the product components, long term testing of individual products is not required.” Under federal pesticide law, EPA is only required to test the active ingredient in pesticide formulations. Ingredients listed as “inert” on a pesticide label can be just as toxic as the active ingredient, but are not tested alongside the active ingredient and are considered confidential business information by pesticide companies. The groups “…urge the agency to employ due diligence and complete a full evaluation of all glyphosate-containing pesticide products registered by EPA.”
Groups say that in order to regain public trust EPA must conduct full-formulation testing on glyphosate’s carcinogenicity and other health effects, consider impacts to soil organisms, the human microbiome, and growing weed resistance to the chemical. “In the absence of this additional and necessary data, we urge the agency to revoke the registration of glyphosate and promote the wide range of non-toxic and least-toxic products and practices currently available, which can readily replace the use of this hazardous pesticide,” the comments read.
The following groups have signed on in support of these comments: Beyond Pesticides; Beyond Toxics; Central Maryland Beekeepers Association; Farmworker Association of Florida; Food and Water Watch; Friends of the Earth; Kansas Rural Center; Maryland Pesticide Education Network; National Family Farm Coalition; Northeast Organic Farming Association:Massachusetts Chapter; Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides; Organic Consumers Association; People and Pollinators Action Network; Pesticide Action Network; Sierra Club; Toxic Free North Carolina.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Very important. Autism is growing in the country.
1995: 1 in 500 children
2015: 1 in 50 children.
It is clear that glyphosate is partially responsible for this.
This article was published in 2019.
Pregnant women and pesticides: Exploring the possible autism connection.
September 5th, 2019 at 5:54 pmIf highly exposed, you’re more at risk for having kids with autism, study says
By Michelle Ganley – Graham Media Group
Posted: 12:07 PM, April 18, 2019
Updated: 12:07 PM, April 18, 2019.
As a representative of the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society (dba, Hanover Co-op Food Stores), I would like to add our organization to your list of signatories to this letter.
Is that still possible? I realize the letter was sent four months ago, yet we’d still be interested in getting on the record with your effort.
Allan
January 7th, 2020 at 2:29 pm