Press release - May 16, 2016

Brussels – The FAO /WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) released an assessment today, which concludes that the controversial weedkiller glyphosate is “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet”. The finding contradicts an earlier assessment by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which stated that glyphosate was a probable cause of cancer. However, the industry ties of at least two experts involved in the JMPR’s evaluation call into question whether the organisation has ensured the independence of its advice.

Alan Boobis and Angelo Moretto (please see more information below) have ties to the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). ILSI Europe receives a majority of its operating and research funding from private companies, including glyphosate producers Dow and Monsanto. ILSI’s Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) is primarily funded by private companies, including glyphosate producers Dow, Monsanto and Syngenta.

Most scientists involved in the glyphosate assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which also contradicted the WHO cancer warning, refused to be named.