{"id":937,"date":"2016-05-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/uncategorized\/937\/industry-ties-raise-questions-about-un-body-assessing-glyphosate-cancer-risk\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:34:20","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:34:20","slug":"industry-ties-raise-questions-about-un-body-assessing-glyphosate-cancer-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/nature-food\/937\/industry-ties-raise-questions-about-un-body-assessing-glyphosate-cancer-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry ties raise questions about UN body assessing glyphosate cancer risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBrussels \u2013 The FAO \/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) released an assessment today, which concludes that the controversial weedkiller glyphosate is \u201cunlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet\u201d [1]. The finding contradicts an earlier assessment by the WHO\u2019s 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\u2019s evaluation call into question whether the organisation has ensured the independence of its advice.
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[NB<\/strong>: Since the publication of this press release, Alan Boobis, one of the scientists named below has been identified as the chair of the JMPR glyphosate panel. For more information see The Guardian<\/a> and Le Monde<\/a>\u00a0(paywall, in French).]<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/a> from private companies [2], including glyphosate producers Dow and Monsanto<\/a>. ILSI\u2019s Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) is primarily<\/a> funded by private companies, including glyphosate producers Dow, Monsanto and Syngenta<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace EU food policy director Franziska Achterberg<\/strong> said: \u201cThe agencies contradicting the WHO cancer warning seem to either rely on officials who prefer not to be named, or lack a watertight policy to protect their impartiality. Any decision affecting millions of people should be based on fully transparent and independent science that isn\u2019t tied to corporate interests. It would be irresponsible to ignore the warnings on glyphosate and to re-licence this pesticide without any restrictions to protect the public and the environment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2006, the WHO reportedly barred ILSI<\/a> from taking part in activities related to \u201csetting microbiological or chemical standards for food and water\u201d<\/em>. The EFSA no longer allows its panel members to also work with ILSI<\/a>. In 2010\/11, two people (Diana Banati and Milan Kovac) had to step down from ILSI roles in order to be part of the EFSA management board. The board viewed ILSI as \u201crepresenting interests of the food chain, other than public interests<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Media reports indicate that the European Commission wants to extend the EU glyphosate licence by nine years or more<\/a>, without EU-wide restrictions on its use, based on the EFSA assessment. The European Parliament requested restrictions to limit public exposure.<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

Alan Boobis<\/strong> is currently the Vice-President of ILSI Europe<\/a>. He is the co-chair of the RISK21<\/a> project run by ILSI\u2019s Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI). Boobis has been an active member of ILSI over many years and also acted as a consultant for companies such as Sumitomo Chemical<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Angelo Moretto<\/strong> is a member of the steering team of the RISK21 project<\/a>. He is also a member of the HESI Board of Trustees<\/a>. Moretto resigned from an EFSA panel on pesticides after reportedly failing to declare a financial interest<\/a> related to the assessment of chemical substances.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

[1]<\/strong> http:\/\/www.who.int\/foodsafety\/jmprsummary2016.pdf?ua=1<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/strong> US Right to Know<\/a> have published a document that appears to be ILSI\u2019s 2012 major donor list. It shows total contributions of $2.4 million (\u20ac2.12 million), with more than $500,000 (\u20ac442,000) each from CropLife International and from Monsanto. https:\/\/t.co\/zDqfzRJHrJ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contacts<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Franziska Achterberg <\/strong>\u2013 Greenpeace EU food policy director: +32 (0)498 362403, franziska.achterberg@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Greenpeace EU press desk<\/strong>: +32 (0)2 274 1911, pressdesk.eu@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For breaking news and comment on EU affairs: www.twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEU<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. Greenpeace does not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The FAO \/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) released an assessment today, which concludes that the controversial weedkiller glyphosate is \u201cunlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[36,39],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-food","tag-pesticides","tag-transparency","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2423,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions\/2423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}