California
EPA Becomes First U.S. Agency to Declare That Roundup Causes Cancer
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - 11:00am
Organization Profile: Center for Biological Diversity
SACRAMENTO, CA - The state of California announced today that as of July 7 it will
list glyphosate, the main ingredient in the pesticide Roundup and the most
common pesticide in the world, as a known human carcinogen under the state’s
Proposition 65.
Today’s decision by the California Environmental Protection
Agency was prompted by the World Health Organization’s finding that glyphosate
is a “probable” human carcinogen. The WHO’s cancer research agency is widely
considered to be the gold standard for research on cancer.
“California’s decision makes it the national leader in
protecting people from cancer-causing pesticides,” said Nathan Donley, a senior
scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity and a former cancer
researcher. “The U.S. EPA now needs to step up and acknowledge that the world’s
most transparent and science-based assessment has linked glyphosate to cancer.”
The state was cleared to move forward with its decision earlier
this year to list glyphosate after a court denied Monsanto’s efforts to
postpone the listing pending the outcome of the pesticide company’s legal
challenge of the decision.
Glyphosate is the most widely used pesticide in the United
States as well as the world, and is the most widely used pesticide in
California, as measured by area of treated land.
An analysis by the Center, available in English and Spanish, found that more than half of the
glyphosate sprayed in California is applied in the state’s eight
most-impoverished counties. The analysis also found that the populations in
these counties are predominantly Hispanic or Latino, indicating that glyphosate
use in California is distributed unequally along both socioeconomic and racial
lines.
Earlier this year a report released by a federal scientific
advisory panel concluded that the pesticides office at the U.S. EPA failed to
follow its own guidelines when it found last year that glyphosate — the active
ingredient in Monsanto’s flagship pesticide Roundup — is not likely to be
carcinogenic to humans.
Recent court documents revealed that the chair of the federal
EPA’s Cancer Assessment Review Committee on glyphosate was in contact with
Monsanto, providing insider information on the potential carcinogen listing,
allowing the company to launch a campaign against it.
The committee chair promised to thwart the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services’ review of glyphosate’s safety, saying that if he was
successful he deserved a medal. The department never did review glyphosate’s
safety, and the U.S. EPA continues to dispute the WHO’s cancer research
agency’s findings.
“This is a remarkable day for California, which forged ahead and
did the right thing on glyphosate even while special-interest politics
hamstring our federal government from taking action to protect people from this
dangerous pesticide,” Donley said.
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At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the
welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature - to the existence in our
world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has
intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a
future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction.
We do so through science, law, and creative media, with a focus on protecting
the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive.
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
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