Europe's food safety agency declares controversial herbicide safe to humans

Europe's food safety agency came down on the side of the world's most common herbicide, saying there was no reason to believe it could cause cancer in humans.

Because Europe's food safety rules are so strict, the European Food Safety Agency rulings in this area often set precedents for the rest of the world.

The battle over the health impacts of glyphosate have raged since it was first marketed in the 1970s under the trade name "Roundup."

Earlier this year, a division of the World Health Organization (WHO) said the chemical was "probably" cancer causing in the right dosages. Another WHO body, the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues, is expected to reveal its findings on glyphosate next year.

Environmental groups, meanwhile, have criticized use of the chemical for years, and after Thursday's ruling, many activists said the European agency's conclusions were wrong.

"This food 'safety' agency acted with blinders on," said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist from the U.S.-based National Resources Defense Council, accusing the European agency of "relying on a draft supplied to them by an industry task force."

Greenpeace, another environmental group, criticized the European agency's research methods.

But the European Food Safety Agency, which is based in the central Italian city of Parma, said its research showed previous conclusions about the herbicide used to kill weeds that compete with commercial crops in more than 170 countries were groundless.

The organization said its research showed there was no evidence the chemical posed increased cancer risks or made other health issues more likely.

The conclusions were drawn from research by a peer-review expert group composed of European Food Safety Agency scientists and risk assessment bodies from European Union states led by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment.

They measured the health impacts of a dose of 0.5 milligrams per kilo of body weight (that means someone weighting 80 kg, or 175 pounds, should not consume more than 40 mg of glyphosate per day). The European agency said it was the first time such a high threshold was used in research in glyphosate.

"This has been an exhaustive process, a full assessment that has taken into account a wealth of new studies and data," said Jose Tarazone, one of the scientists who contributed to the report.

Worldwide, more than 800 weed killing products that include glyphosate are in use.

Experts said the stamp of approval from the European Food Safety Agency will likely result in the product, which lowers the cost of food production by limiting the spread of unwanted weeds, being utilized by more European farmers. Enditem