Differences in the carcinogenic evaluation of glyphosate between the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Portier CJ et al. Differences in the carcinogenic evaluation of glyphosate between the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Editorial. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2016.

For the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) Monograph 112, expert scientists evaluated the carcinogenic hazard for four insecticides and the herbicide glyphosate. Glyphosate was classified as a probable human carcinogen (Group 2A). The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the primary agency of the European Union for risk assessments regarding food safety. EFSA has concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans.

This commentary overviews the evidence and discusses serious flaws in the scientific evaluation that EFSA’s classification is based on, leading EFSA to incorrectly characterize the potential for a carcinogenic hazard from exposure to glyphosate.