California Adding Glyphosate (Active Ingredient In Roundup) To Official List Of Cancer-Causing Chemicals, Effective July 7th

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The US state of California will be adding the widely used herbicide glyphosate — the so-called “active ingredient” in Monsanto’s most popular weedkiller, Roundup — to its official list of chemicals that are known to cause cancer, according to recent reports.

The addition of glyphosate to the list will be effective as of July 7th, according to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).

As would be expected, a spokesperson for Monsanto has revealed that the company will be continuing its legal fight against the decision. The statement claimed that the decision by California’s regulators was “unwarranted on the basis of science and the law.”

Reuters provides more: “OEHHA said the designation of glyphosate under Proposition 65 will proceed following an unsuccessful attempt by Monsanto to block the listing in trial court and after requests for stay were denied by a state appellate court and the California’s Supreme Court.”

In practice, what the addition of glyphosate to the list will entail is that warning labels be added to product packaging. Additionally, when the chemical is being sprayed at levels considered by regulators to be unsafe, warnings will be issued beforehand. In other words, despite being identified as something that causes cancer in humans, it won’t be banned.

Furthermore, following the listing, companies will have one year to institute necessary changes.

In related news, however, the Monsanto-produced weedkiller Dicamba may end up being banned in Arkansas. The state’s plant board recently voted to ban it there.

Those in the mood to catch up on other recent news involving the company may be interested in reading this one: “Lawsuit: Monsanto Ghostwrote Papers On Roundup Cancer Risk, EPA Used Them, … & EPA Official In Charge Of Cancer Risk Evaluation Tried To “Kill” ATSDR Investigation.”

Image by Mike Mozart (some rights reserved)


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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