Regulatory “science” under the spotlight

Fallout continues from the World Health Organisation’s classification of glyphosate herbicide as a probable carcinogen.

Following is a collection of comments on the story. In item 3, Senator Ed Markey calls for the US EPA to quickly complete its planned review of glyphosate, taking into account the new information from the WHO.

However, unless the EPA reforms its evaluation processes, it will not take the WHO report into serious consideration.

This is because the EPA, in common with regulatory authorities worldwide, routinely ignores or dismisses the independent studies that the WHO examined in order to reach its conclusion. Instead regulators base their evaluations on data from outdated tests conducted by industry, the details of which are kept secret from the public and independent scientists.

This has led to diverging scientific streams of thought, in which independent studies frequently find harm from a substance that regulators insist is safe.

A few NGOs, including GMWatch, Earth Open Source, Pesticide Action Network Europe, and the independent chemicals consultant Tony Tweedale have been drawing attention to this issue for years. The WHO’s classification of glyphosate and its divergence from regulatory opinions will throw it into the spotlight as nothing else has done before.