May 17, 2016
Screenshot of Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues Summary Report on glyphosate. Image courtesy of WHO.
Yesterday a joint meeting of the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published a statement concluding that “glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure from the diet.” Glyphosate is a key ingredient in Monsanto’s popular herbicide Roundup. This news supports the wider body of scientific evidence that glyphosate does not cause cancer in humans.
The Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR), held in Geneva Switzerland from 9 to 13 May 2016, also assessed the pesticides diazinon and malathion. The outcome by the research team was that both these substances are unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from the diet, too. On glyphosate, key sentences from the JMPR statement were:
“The overall weight of evidence indicates that administration of glyphosate and its formulation products at doses as high as 2000 mg/kg body weight by the oral route, the route most relevant to human dietary exposure, was not associated with genotoxic effects in an overwhelming majority of studies conducted in mammals, a model considered to be appropriate for assessing genotoxic risks to humans. The Meeting concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to be genotoxic at anticipated dietary exposures.”
And:
“the Meeting concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet.”
This news has been widely reported in the mainstream media, including Reuters, The Guardian and Al Jazeera. Below are useful links from the WHO, Glyphosate Task Force, Monsanto US blog and our Monsanto Europe blog:
Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues Summary Report.
JMPR’s Frequently Asked Questions on glyphosate.
Glyphosate Task Force statement.
Monsanto US ‘Beyond the Rows’ blog post.
Monsanto Europe page on glyphosate.
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