Image Credit: Flickr / Mike Mozart
It was announced this week that the California Environmental Protection Agency is planning to label Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide as a cancer-causing chemical. This is just the most recent warning that has been leveled against the chemical by environmental and health groups around the world. In the past year, government agencies have finally caught up with activists who have been protesting against Monsanto and their dangerous products for years.
In a statement released earlier this year, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that glyphosate, the main ingredient in RoundUp, is “probably carcinogenic.”
This week, the EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in California released a “notice of intent” to label the product as a carcinogen. Meanwhile, the issue is up for discussion for California residents, who have until October 5th to speak their mind on the measure. Due to a law passed in the state in 1986 called Proposition 65, the state is required to publish a list of chemicals that are known to cause cancer birth defects or reproductive problems. Now that glyphosate is now on that list officially worldwide, the state is required to add it to the list.
Nathan Donley, staff scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco said that this is a major victory in the fight against dangerous pesticides.
“California’s taking an important step toward protecting people and wildlife from this toxic pesticide. It’s nearly impossible for people to limit exposure to this toxin because it is just so widespread. That’s why we need much tighter controls on its use,” Donley said.
“More than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are used each year in the United States, and the science is clear that it’s a threat to public health and countless wildlife species. It’s long past time to start reining in the out-of-control use of glyphosate in the United States,” he added.
For years, government environmental agencies have denied that these chemicals were dangerous, but now with official proof on record, activists are vindicated and are now able to point to scientific evidence to back up what they have been warning about all along.
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John Vibes writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war.
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