On January 31, 2020, Bayer said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) favourable conclusion about the safety of glyphosate in its Interim Registration Review Decision, based on the agency’s expert review over 10 years, reaffirms that the extensive body of science continues to support the safety of herbicides containing glyphosate and that this active ingredient is not carcinogenic.

EPA concluded that it “did not identify any human health risks from exposure to glyphosate.”

“EPA’s latest decision on glyphosate-based herbicides adds to the long-term evaluation of leading international health authorities that these products can be used safely, and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic,” said Liam Condon, member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and president Crop Science Division.

In August 2019 the EPA sent a letter to glyphosate registrants, which stated respectively that a cancer warning on products containing this active ingredient would be “inconsistent with the agency’s scientific assessment of the carcinogenic potential of the product” and would be a “false and misleading statement.”

Since IARC’s assessment in 2015, regulatory and scientific bodies that have reaffirmed their conclusions about the safety of glyphosate-based products and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic include the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), German BfR, and Australian, Canadian, Korean, New Zealand and Japanese regulatory authorities, as well as Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR).

Source: Bayer January 31, 2020 news release