carcinogen

Officials within EPA worked to slow a safety review of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, in an apparent response to emails from Monsanto, which makes the chemical, said HuffPost. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of HHS, said in early 2015 that it planned to publish a toxicological review of glyphosate before winter of that year, but the review has yet to appear.

Popular oat cereals, granola bars, and oatmeal contain significant levels of glyphosate, the chemical in Monsanto’s popular weedkiller Roundup, according to new testing done by the Environmental Working Group. EWG’s study found that dozens of oat and cereal products contain levels of …

A California state court jury awarded $289 million to terminally ill Dewayne Johnson on grounds that Roundup, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, gave the former school groundskeeper cancer. The maker of the herbicide, Monsanto, said it would appeal the verdict "and continue to vigorously defend this product, which has a 40-year history of safe use," reported CNN.

In a joint letter, British farm groups urged the European Union to reauthorize use of the weedkiller glyphosate "for the maximum period possible." The European Commission has proposed a five-year extension of the license for glyphosate, and an EC committee could discuss the future of the herbicide at a meeting expected on Thursday, said news site Farming UK.

With protesters outside the EU headquarters in Brussels, EU member nations postponed a vote on extending the license to use the weedkiller glyphosate in Europe. Approval for the herbicide expires at the end of December and the next opportunity for an EU decision will likely be at a Nov. 6 meeting, said Associated Press.

California regulators violated the Constitution by requiring warning labels on glyphosate containers saying the herbicide is a carcinogen, says a federal lawsuit filed by Monsanto and a dozen farm and agribusiness groups.

In a comprehensive look at the controversy over the weedkiller glyphosate, FERN in a story with The Nation magazine documents the steps Monsanto took in a concerted spin campaign with scientists and regulators to make sure the world’s most widely used herbicide remained free of any links to cancer. But author Rene Ebersole in the article, “Mass Exposure,” writes that the company's carefully constructed defense of the chemical is coming under increasing pressure, as its methods behind that defense are revealed.

Monsanto has been banned from attending European parliament proceedings after the corporation refused to appear for a parliamentary hearing, slated for October 11, to investigate regulatory interference. Monsanto is accused of influencing studies on the safety of the glyphosate, the primary ingredient in the company’s weedkiller Roundup.

France is open to phasing out use of the weedkiller glyphosate within its borders and will vote against a proposed 10-year EU license for the weedkiller, said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. Reuters reported that Philippe asked the agriculture and environment ministries to propose by the end of this year "a plan to move away from glyphosate in light of current research and available alternatives for farmers."

Monsanto, the world's largest seed and ag-chemical company, planned for months ahead of time to generate a storm of protest and disagreement over the 2015 finding by the WHO cancer agency that the weedkiller glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans," says EcoWatch. "The timing was critical because in 2015 both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Commission were evaluating re-authorizations of Monsanto's weed killer."

Dozens of internal emails "reveal how Monsanto worked with an outside consulting firm to induce" a scientific journal "to publish a purported 'independent' review of Roundup's health effects that appears to be anything but," says Bloomberg Businessweek. The review, published as a supplement by Critical Reviews in Toxicology, rebutted the conclusion by the International Agency for Research on Cancer that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller, is probably carcinogenic to humans.

Months after suspending work, the Food and Drug Administration "has resumed its first-ever endeavor to evaluate how much of a controversial chemical is making its way into the U.S. food supply," says a blog post by Carey Gillam of U.S. Right to Know. The FDA began the "special assignment" last year but stopped the work because of a disagreement over a standard methodology for the agency's laboratories to use.

The USDA has canceled plans to test for glyphosate residue in corn syrup, according to documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act by Carey Gillam, who writes about them in The Huffington Post. Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, is the most widely used …

A key EPA official who played a role in deciding the government’s cancer designation on Roundup, Monsanto’s weedkiller, was routinely communicating with company officials, according to federal court documents unsealed Tuesday. The official reportedly told the company that he could kill another agency’s investigation into glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.