The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology announced that it may soon hold a hearing on the International Agency for Cancer Research’s 2015 assessment that glyphosate is a carcinogen.
The Committee has been looking into the IARC, which receives American taxpayer funding, and it sent a letter to the agency’s director citing concerns over the “scientific integrity” of the group. The letter also sheds light on the allegations of data manipulation in the IARC review of glyphosate. It also questions the involvement of Christopher Portier, a statistician with no previous experience regarding glyphosate, who testified during a high-profile European hearing that he was in favor of banning the herbicide.
At the same time Portier chaired the IARC Working Group that proposed the assessment on glyphosate, he was also a private litigation consultant for two law firms, directly benefitting from the classification of glyphosate as a “probable” carcinogen.
The House Committee may soon be asking IARC officials to appear before them to give testimony about the methodology they used to come up with their findings.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.