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WHO Reports on Pesticide's Risk03-30-15 | News

WHO Reports on Pesticide's Risk

Glyphosate"s "soaring use on genetically modified crops" and the impact that has had on monarch butterflies, led the National Resources Defense Council to file two lawsuits and a petition with the EPA to restrict the use of herbicides containing the chemical, which was recently labeled by the World Health Organization as "probably" causing cancer in humans.

A recent assessment of the cancer-causing potential of glyphosate, one of the most widely used pesticides in the U.S. according to the National Resources Defense Council, found that the chemical "probably" causes cancer in people.

This result was the outcome of a meeting convened by the International Agency for Research on Cancer - the cancer evaluation arm of the World Health Organization - with 17 scientific experts from 11 countries to assess whether certain pesticides, including glyphosate, caused cancer in humans.

The National Resources Defense Council points out that the chemical is used in over 750 herbicide products and applied to fields in the U.S. at over 250 million pounds annually.

"The WHO decision underscores the need for the Environmental Protection Agency to examine and act on all we've learned about glyphosate's dangers in the two decades since it was last approved for use," said Jennifer Sass, senior scientist in the health program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "NRDC has already filed two lawsuits and a petition with EPA to restrict the use of glyphosate-containing herbicides because of their devastating impact on monarch butterflies. The soaring use on genetically modified crops of glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, has wiped out much of the milkweed, a native wildflower that monarchs need to survive. This review should consider whether glyphosate should be pulled from the market immediately to protect human health and the environment."