The head of Europe’s food safety watchdog has written to a group of nearly 100 senior scientists strongly rejecting their criticisms in a row about the safety of weed-killer ingredient glyphosate, reports Reuters editor Barbara Lewis.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which advises European Union policymakers, issued an opinion in November that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer.
That was at odds with a view from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), sparked outrage among environmental campaigners and divided the scientific community.
The IARC said in March that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans” while environmental groups have been calling for a ban on glyphosate.
