The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published its conclusions on glyphosate. Importantly, EFSA concluded that “glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans.” EFSA also noted that “the evidence does not support classification with regard to [glyphosate’s] carcinogenic potential.” In addition, EFSA’s evaluation confirmed previous risk evaluations that glyphosate does not show carcinogenic or mutagenic properties, and has no toxic effect on fertility, reproduction or embryonal development.

The EFSA conclusion builds upon the science-based proposed re-evaluation decision by the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency from April 2015, which concluded that “the overall weight of evidence indicates that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a human cancer risk.”

As is noted by the EFSA opinion, these robust and strong assessments by authoritative regulatory bodies are a significant and direct contrast to the classification of glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen” by IARC earlier this year. The IARC classification selectively included and interpreted data, followed non-standard toxicological procedures, and only reflects the opinions of a select group of scientists. As concluded by EFSA and the Canadian PMRA, the overwhelming weight of evidence from decades of research on glyphosate does not provide any credible data to suggest a relationship between glyphosate and cancer.

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