WHO IARC asked panel not to release weedkiller review documents
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialized cancer agency under the World Health Organization (WHO), advised its academic experts on one of its review panels not to release documents regarding a 2015 review of the weedkiller glyphosate. The agency said the request was made to protect its work from external interference and defend the freedom of its panels to debate evidence openly and critically.
According to a report by Reuters, IARC officials, in a letter and an email, cautioned scientists who worked on the 2015 review against disclosing the contents of the requested materials. “IARC is the sole owner of such materials,” the international agency told the experts. “IARC requests you and your institute not to release any (such) documents.”
Published in March 2015, the review concluded glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic,” which put IARC at odds with regulators around the world. Wanting to find out more about how the conclusion was reached, critics asked for the documents to be released.
According to its critics, the way IARC evaluates whether substances might be carcinogenic can cause unnecessary health scares. WHO’s specialized agency assesses the risk of a substance being carcinogenic without taking account of typical human exposure to it.
According to data published by IARC, glyphosate, which is a key ingredient of the herbicide Roundup sold by Monsanto, was registered in over 130 countries as of 2010. It is one of the most heavily used weedkillers in the world.
Other regulators, including in the US, Europe, Canada, Japan and New Zealand, say the weedkiller is unlikely to pose a cancer risk to humans. The conflicting scientific assessments have put increasing pressure on the experts who worked on the cancer agency’s glyphosate review.
It has also delayed a decision on whether glyphosate should be relicensed for sale in Europe, and prompted senior US lawmakers to question whether IARC should receive funding from US taxpayers.
The agency defends its methods as scientifically sound and says its monographs – the name it gives to its classifications of carcinogens – are “widely respected for their scientific rigor, standardized and transparent process and . . . freedom from conflicts of interest.”
Its advice to experts not to release documents came in April after IARC said it learned that members of the scientific panel that reviewed glyphosate in 2015 had been issued with legal requests for information relating to their work.
Multiple subsequent freedom of information requests by the US conservative advocacy group the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E and E Legal) have since been turned down by agencies and universities citing IARC’s reasoning that it owns the documents.
As international agencies, both IARC and the WHO “have policies to protect their work, and the contributions of their expert Working Groups, from external interference”, the agency said.
It also said it is vital that scientists in its working groups “are able to openly and critically debate the scientific evidence.”
“IARC considers any measures that would discourage scientists from participating in Monographs or would detract from open scientific debate to be contrary to the best interests of international public health,” it added.
Category: Features, Health alert
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