TY - JOUR T1 - Differences in the carcinogenic evaluation of glyphosate between the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 741 LP - 745 DO - 10.1136/jech-2015-207005 VL - 70 IS - 8 AU - Christopher J Portier AU - Bruce K Armstrong AU - Bruce C Baguley AU - Xaver Baur AU - Igor Belyaev AU - Robert Bellé AU - Fiorella Belpoggi AU - Annibale Biggeri AU - Maarten C Bosland AU - Paolo Bruzzi AU - Lygia Therese Budnik AU - Merete D Bugge AU - Kathleen Burns AU - Gloria M Calaf AU - David O Carpenter AU - Hillary M Carpenter AU - Lizbeth López-Carrillo AU - Richard Clapp AU - Pierluigi Cocco AU - Dario Consonni AU - Pietro Comba AU - Elena Craft AU - Mohamed Aqiel Dalvie AU - Devra Davis AU - Paul A Demers AU - Anneclaire J De Roos AU - Jamie DeWitt AU - Francesco Forastiere AU - Jonathan H Freedman AU - Lin Fritschi AU - Caroline Gaus AU - Julia M Gohlke AU - Marcel Goldberg AU - Eberhard Greiser AU - Johnni Hansen AU - Lennart Hardell AU - Michael Hauptmann AU - Wei Huang AU - James Huff AU - Margaret O James AU - C W Jameson AU - Andreas Kortenkamp AU - Annette Kopp-Schneider AU - Hans Kromhout AU - Marcelo L Larramendy AU - Philip J Landrigan AU - Lawrence H Lash AU - Dariusz Leszczynski AU - Charles F Lynch AU - Corrado Magnani AU - Daniele Mandrioli AU - Francis L Martin AU - Enzo Merler AU - Paola Michelozzi AU - Lucia Miligi AU - Anthony B Miller AU - Dario Mirabelli AU - Franklin E Mirer AU - Saloshni Naidoo AU - Melissa J Perry AU - Maria Grazia Petronio AU - Roberta Pirastu AU - Ralph J Portier AU - Kenneth S Ramos AU - Larry W Robertson AU - Theresa Rodriguez AU - Martin Röösli AU - Matt K Ross AU - Deodutta Roy AU - Ivan Rusyn AU - Paulo Saldiva AU - Jennifer Sass AU - Kai Savolainen AU - Paul T J Scheepers AU - Consolato Sergi AU - Ellen K Silbergeld AU - Martyn T Smith AU - Bernard W Stewart AU - Patrice Sutton AU - Fabio Tateo AU - Benedetto Terracini AU - Heinz W Thielmann AU - David B Thomas AU - Harri Vainio AU - John E Vena AU - Paolo Vineis AU - Elisabete Weiderpass AU - Dennis D Weisenburger AU - Tracey J Woodruff AU - Takashi Yorifuji AU - Il Je Yu AU - Paola Zambon AU - Hajo Zeeb AU - Shu-Feng Zhou Y1 - 2016/08/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/70/8/741.abstract N2 - The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs Programme identifies chemicals, drugs, mixtures, occupational exposures, lifestyles and personal habits, and physical and biological agents that cause cancer in humans and has evaluated about 1000 agents since 1971. Monographs are written by ad hoc Working Groups (WGs) of international scientific experts over a period of about 12 months ending in an eight-day meeting. The WG evaluates all of the publicly available scientific information on each substance and, through a transparent and rigorous process,1 decides on the degree to which the scientific evidence supports that substance's potential to cause or not cause cancer in humans.For Monograph 112,2 17 expert scientists evaluated the carcinogenic hazard for four insecticides and the herbicide glyphosate.3 The WG concluded that the data for glyphosate meet the criteria for classification as a probable human carcinogen.The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the primary agency of the European Union for risk assessments regarding food safety. In October 2015, EFSA reported4 on their evaluation of the Renewal Assessment Report5 (RAR) for glyphosate that was prepared by the Rapporteur Member State, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). EFSA concluded that ‘glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans and the evidence does not support classification with regard to its carcinogenic potential’. Addendum 1 (the BfR Addendum) of the RAR5 discusses the scientific rationale for differing from the IARC WG conclusion.Serious flaws in the scientific evaluation in the RAR incorrectly characterise the potential for a carcinogenic hazard from exposure to glyphosate. Since the RAR is the basis for the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) conclusion,4 it is critical that these shortcomings are corrected.EFSA concluded ‘that there is very limited evidence for an association between glyphosate-based formulations … ER -