EPA study: Roundup pesticide ‘not likely to be carcinogenic’

Roundup, the country’s most widely-used pesticide, is probably not carcinogenic to humans, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in an evaluation released Friday

The finding about the pesticide glyphosate — which will be evaluated by EPA advisers next month before the agency decides whether to adopt it — is likely to disappoint environmentalists and food safety activists want the Monsanto Co.-produced pesticide to be restricted.

{mosads}The 227-page paper concluded that “the available data at this time do no [not] support a carcinogenic process for glyphosate” and that “the strongest support is for ‘not likely to be carcinogenic to humans’ at doses relevant to human health risk assessment.”

If adopted, the assessment would affirm the EPA’s previous conclusion about glyphosate, which Monsanto sells as Roundup.

The analysis was spurred in part by a World Health Organization finding last year that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic in humans.”

The Center for Food Safety says glyphosate has been linked to kidney, pancreatic and other tumors in test animals, and that farmers with particularly high exposure to glyphosate have shown higher instances of cancer.

But the European Food Safety Authority found last year that the pesticide is unlikely to either harm DNA or cause cancer.

The EPA’s advisory panel for pesticides will meet next month to consider the report. EPA officials will then consider whether to adopt it, with a period for public comment, and the agency intends to make its final decision next year.