The most widely produced and used herbicide in the United States has been determined by a prestigious international scientific institution to be a probable human carcinogen (cancer initiating/promoting chemical agent).
The International Association for Research on Cancer (IARC) made an announcement of its designation on Friday that the most commonly
used herbicide in the United States, Glyphosate (found in "RoundUp")
is designated as Group 2A, probably carcinogenic to humans.
For the herbicide glyphosate , there was limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The evidence in humans is from studies of exposures, mostly agricultural, in the USA, Canada, and Sweden published since 2001. In addition, there is convincing evidence that glyphosate also can cause cancer in laboratory animals. On the basis of tumours in mice, the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (US EPA) originally classified glyphosate as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group C) in 1985.
After a re-evaluation of that mouse study, the US EPA changed its
classification to evidence of non-carcinogenicity in humans (Group E) in 1991. The US EPA Scientific Advisory Panel noted that the re-evaluated glyphosate results were still significant using two statistical tests recommended in the IARC Preamble. The IARC
Working Group that conducted the evaluation considered the significant findings
from the US EPA report and several more recent positive results in concluding that there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals.
Glyphosate also caused DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells, although it gave negative results in tests using bacteria. One study in community residents reported increases in blood markers of chromosomal damage (micronuclei) after glyphosate
formulations were sprayed nearby.
What Group 2A means:
Group 2A means that the agent is probably carcinogenic to humans. This category is used when there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Limited evidence means that a positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent and cancer but that
other explanations for the observations (called chance, bias, or confounding)
could not be ruled out. This category is also used when there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and strong data on how the agent causes cancer.
http://www.iarc.fr/...
Malathion also received the same designation from IARC.
Glyphosate is used on everything from corn crops, to electric utility right of ways, to getting rid of nuisance European variant invasive phragmites in the Great Lakes region.
7:03 PM PT: NRDC has filed litigation against EPA over glyphosphate claiming that it is damaging populations of monarch butterflies:
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/...
7:20 PM PT: IARC's review was reported in this Lancet Oncology article.....you can see the article for free if you register at the Lancet site:
http://www.thelancet.com/...
7:49 PM PT: Here is EPA's site on glyphosate in drinking water. Some of the quality standards would likely have to be revised if EPA follows IARC and changes its carcinogenicity determination for glyphosate....as the numbers on the EPA page likely do not assume that glyphosate is a carcinogen:
http://water.epa.gov/...
7:52 PM PT: Here is Monsanto's statement in reaction to the IARC decision for Group 2A designation for glyphosate:
http://news.monsanto.com/...
8:05 PM PT: From Journal of the American Water Resources Association.....
Glyphosate and Its Degradation Product AMPA Occur Frequently and Widely in U.S. Soils, Surface Water, Groundwater, and Precipitation
Abstract at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/...
8:07 PM PT: U.S. Geological Survey:
Glyphosate Herbicide Found in Many Midwestern Streams
http://toxics.usgs.gov/...
8:20 PM PT: To those trying to make a "GMO issue" out of this news of IARC's designation of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen....my response is that the issue of genetically engineered organisms is irrelevant to the entire matter of the environmental toxicology of glyphosate.....bringing up GMOs in this context is an attempt at pseudo-science.
10:48 PM PT: Note that IARC also addressed Tetrachlorvinphos, which is used in flee collars in the United States and in certain solid, sublimiting pesticides for fly control {'no pest strips"}
NRDC has been paying attention....on that particular substance....
http://www.nrdc.org/...