The Deadly Herbicide Report You Need to Read by Dr. Joseph Mercola
It was 2015 when the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) identified glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, as a probable human carcinogen.1
Since then, Bayer, which in 2018 acquired Monsanto and all of their Roundup-related legal problems, has faced jury verdicts worth a combined $2.4 billion from people who alleged that exposure to glyphosate caused their cancer, specifically non-Hodgkin lymphoma.2
In June 2020, Bayer agreed to pay between $8.8 billion and $9.1 billion to settle 125,000 Roundup lawsuits that have been filed, which account for about 75% of the Roundup/cancer lawsuits.3 Another $1.25 billion was to be set aside by Bayer to cover future Roundup claims, but despite the settlement — the largest in Big Pharma history — Bayer admitted no wrongdoing.4
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Through all of the high-profile lawsuits, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency remained steadfast in its support of glyphosate. In an assessment on glyphosate, the final draft of which was released in April 2019, the EPA found the chemical “is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”5
It turns out, however, that a buried EPA report from 2016 found the opposite — that glyphosate did appear to be linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.6
Internal EPA Report Links Glyphosate to Cancer
The newly released confidential EPA report7 was included in an exposé by investigative reporter Sharon Lerner in The Intercept, who wrote:8
“The internal report which was marked “confidential,” found that the four highest-quality studies ‘all reported elevated risks of NHL associated with exposure to glyphosate even after controlling for other pesticide exposures’ and concluded that the studies ‘provide suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential between glyphosate exposure and increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.’
But the EPA never published this clear expression of concern. Instead, it subsequently released reports in 2016 and 2017 that clearly drew on the earlier document — several sections have identical wording — but reached the opposite conclusion: that glyphosate is ‘not a probable carcinogen.’”
Lerner spoke with Genna Reed, a senior analyst at the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who stated that the EPA cherry-picked data from the internal report. “They only used the pieces of the meta-analysis that fit the conclusion they wanted to support … There is clearly a need for more firewalls to prevent political interference with the science.”9
Internal Report May Support Glyphosate Proposition 65 Appeal
Not only did the EPA continue to support glyphosate’s safety for years after the internal report revealed evidence suggestive of its carcinogenicity, but they went so far as to block warning labels in California when the state announced they wanted warning labels on it within the state.10
As background information, glyphosate was officially added to California’s Proposition 65 list of carcinogens in July 2017, and warning labels stating that glyphosate may cause cancer were supposed to be added to products beginning in the summer of 2018.
The labels, however, were halted when Monsanto challenged the California rule in court. In February 2018, a federal judge temporarily banned California’s plans to add cancer warning labels on glyphosate-based products,11 which the EPA subsequently backed up.
Then, in August 2019, the EPA stated they will “no longer approve product labels claiming glyphosate is known to cause cancer,” adding that that is “a false claim that does not meet the labeling requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).”12
