Physical Wellness

UN Study On Weed Killer: Glyphosate Does NOT Cause Cancer

By Dheeraj Rawal | Update Date: May 18, 2016 06:27 AM EDT

The latest report revealed by the UN committee suggests that the weed killer glyphosate is not really harmful to cause cancer. The finding has been brought forward by the United Nations in order to curb the current talks of banning the agriculture giant, Monsanto Roundup, herbicide and thus save the company's key product.

"The European parliament urged the EU to only approve glyphosate's use for seven years instead of 15 as requested by the bloc's top regulator amid fears that the product could be carcinogenic," reported Fox News. "A review carried out by pesticide experts stated that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet."

The Guardian reported that the research activity about the weed killer glyphosate was jointly carried out by the UN and World Health Organization panel in order to evaluate the risk to people consuming some amount of the chemical through food.

Even though the United Nations has announced that the glyphosate is harmless, few reports suggest that their study has contradicted the previous conclusions of the World Health Organization.  The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a unit of WHO, had earlier revealed that the organophosphorus compound can cause cancer if used at a large scale, reported Wired.

But, recently, WHO stepped forward and announced that the two findings, i.e. from the UN committee and IARC, are not contradictory at all. The organization claimed that the IARC verdict was based on whether the weed killer glyphosate could possibly pose any risk to human health or not, counting the extremely high levels of exposure.

Further, a senior policy officer at the FAO and a member of the UN panel, Harry van der Wulp, said the latest investigation has been carried out very widely, but cannot be considered as final. "These conclusions relate to exposure through the diet that is very important," said Harry, as reported by NDTV. "It is not a general conclusion because anything beyond the diet was not in our mandate. It remains less clear what the situation is with occupational exposure. My personal assessment is that it is a very complex puzzle and we are adding more and more pieces to it, but it is not necessarily complete yet."

In the meantime, there are reports that the EU pesticides committee will conduct a meeting on Wednesday in order to decide the glyphosate's fate i.e. whether to extend its license or not. There are reports that the recent findings would act in favor of the continued usage of the pesticide.

The European countries which have expressed their opposition to the weed killer glyphosate are France and Austria while Germany and Britain are reported to be in its approval. 

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