Geneticallymodified food claims misleading
In a letter to the editor in the May 19 issue of the Journal-Pioneer, Kevin J. Arsenault opposes genetically-modified (GM) foods and decries the fact that GM foods are not labeled as such. While I am not going to be drawn into this debate, I do wish to point out that Mr. Arsenault has presented erroneous and misleading information concerning the health effects of glyphosphate on consumers of GM food. Glyphosphate is a herbicide frequently used by farmers in conjunction with growing GM crops. He writes that “the UN has ruled [glyphosphate] is ‘probably’ carcogenic.”
Mr. Arsenault is likely referring to a 2015 report of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), itself a UN agency. The report concluded that glyphosphate is “probably carcinogenic.” However, with respect to any impact it might have on the consumers of GM food, regulatory agencies in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere, largely rejected this finding because it was based on questionable quality of the studies and because it focused on whether glyphosphate might cause cancer in workers exposed to extreme doses over extended periods of time, not whether traces of it in our food pose a danger. Nevertheless, the IRAC finding has been widely circulated by anti-chemical and anti-GM advocacy groups that argue for bans or tighter restrictions in relation to GM food.
A study conducted in the early 1990s by the WHO, the United Nations Environmental Programme and the International Labour Organization (see http://apps.who. int/iris/handle/10665/40044) concluded that glyphosphate residues in crops and edible animal tissues “are negligible.” A 2016 joint report of two UN organizations, the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization (see http://www.who.int/foodsafety/ jmprsummary2016.pdf ) went further. It concluded that “glyphosphate is unlikely to be genotoxic at anticipated dietary exposures” and that “glyphosphate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through diet.”
Earle Lockerby, Darnley