EPA Bows to Chemical Industry in Delay of Glyphosate Cancer Review

[womanofthehills]

This might have been a tough week for Monsanto Co. The Environmental Protection Agency was slated to hold four days of public meetings focused on essentially one question: Is glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide and the lynchpin to Monsanto’s fortunes, as safe as Monsanto has spent 40 years telling us it is?

But oddly, the EPA Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) meetings, called to look at potential glyphosate ties to cancer, were “postponed“ just four days before they were to begin Oct. 18, after intense lobbying by the agrichemical industry. The industry first fought to keep the meetings from being held at all, and argued that if they were held, several leading international experts should be excluded from participating, including “any person who has publicly expressed an opinion regarding the carcinogenicity of glyphosate.”

As the meetings drew near, CropLife America, which represents the interests of Monsanto and other agribusinesses, specifically took issue with at least two scientists chosen for the panel, alleging the experts might be unfavorably biased against industry interests. On Oct. 12, the group sent a letter to the EPA calling for Dr. Kenneth Portier of the American Cancer Society to be more deeply scrutinized for any “pre-formed conclusions” about glyphosate.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carey-gillam/epa-bows-to-chemical-indu_b_12563438.html

[world wide wally]

1. This is the kind of thing we have to change...

But we never will with a Republican Congress!
And that is the word we have to get out!

[kwolf68]

2. Just a business decision

If quality of life goes down, the environment gets wrecked, species are pushed to extinction, real places real people live are destroyed and people die it's just the cost of doing business.

For all the complaining by the right wing rober barons, the EVIL EPA proves ineffective. "Lobbying" should never be a part of human safeguard or science, but alas it is and is simply part of the business model.

[Nitram]

3. Perhaps, to give the doomsayers their due, the EPA decided to give more time to weigh the evidence.

The Evidence. Not anecdotes, not gut feelings. Facts.