The monolithic chemical company, Monsanto, is trying to convince the world that glyphosate, their number one selling herbicide, is not a probable carcinogen as defined by World Health Organization report published earlier this year.
According to Reuters, a 16-member panel, assembled by Intertek Scientific & Regulatory Consultancy will present its findings to the annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis. Their study will be published the study at a later date after peer review.
The group says the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) misinterpreted or incorrectly weighted some of the data it reviewed and ignored other data before classifying glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen, according to an abstract of its findings.
So how objective are the findings? The panel is anything but impartial. Monsanto paid Intertek for the panel’s work.Ten of the 16 scientists on the Intertek panel have been consultants for Monsanto in the past and two others are former Monsanto employees, according to a roster published on Monsanto’s website.
But then again objective science is not Monsanto’s goal – declining sales are the slings and arrows behind this attempt to debunk the World Health Organization. Monsanto is continuing to lose profits into the second quarter of 2015, shedding an exceptional 15% profit amid falling GMO seed sale.
The WHO report indicated studies “sufficiently demonstrated” that glyphosate caused cancer in animals. And, according to multiple reports, Monsanto was well aware that this chemical caused cancer for decades yet still continued to sell it.
Earlier in the year, over 30,000 doctors and health experts throughout Latin America are demanding that Monsanto’s products be banned. One of the primary cases that these doctors are bringing against Monsanto is the recent confirmation that their main herbicide RoundUp is actually responsible for causing cancer.
Concerns about glyphosate on food have also been a hot topic of debate in the United States contributing to the passage last year in Vermont of the country’s first mandatory labeling law for foods that are genetically modified. In Europe, France has banned Roundup’s use
Critics say that industry-linked scientists are downplaying the risk to human health and trying to discredit the IARC report by casting doubt on some of the scientific studies that it reviewed.