Scientists still divided on whether glyphosate causes cancer

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials received a mixed message from scientists assembled to review evidence of whether glyphosate is a human carcinogen.
 

The members of a Scientific Advisory Panel concluded their four-day meeting in Arlington, Virginia, by offering opinions on EPA's conclusion that the active ingredient in Roundup, the world's most widely used herbicide, is “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

 

The result: The panel was split on the issue. Some members backed EPA's finding and others said that the evidence was “suggestive” of carcinogenic potential for the chemical.

 

Some on the panel were not expecting that. “I'm a little surprised there's this controversy. I thought EPA did a pretty good job,” said Marion Ehrich, co-director of the Laboratory for Neurotoxicity Studies at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. She supported the “not likely” conclusion, saying “there just isn't enough (evidence) there” to support any other finding.

 

“Rarely does a panel disagree as much as this one,” said SAP veteran Kenneth Portier, a statistician with the American Cancer Society. He urged EPA to figure out how it plans to use epidemiology to inform its risk assessments, an issue raised recently by CropLife America, which petitioned the agency Nov. 29 to postpone regulatory decisions informed by epidemiological studies until it has adopted concrete data quality standards.
 

Panel members who supported EPA said the evidence from the epidemiological and animal studies was simply not strong enough to support anything else.
 

But there was uncertainty all around the table as members wrestled with EPA's review of the data in its September 2016 “white paper.”