Lawmakers seek missing information in review of Monsanto weedkiller

LONDON • The chairman of a congressional committee has asked the U.S. National Institutes
of Health to explain why its National Cancer Institute failed to publish data that showed
no links between glyphosate and cancer.
In a Tuesday letter seen by Reuters, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, a Republican who chairs the
House Committee on Government and Oversight Reform, said he "is concerned about the new
revelations" and is "seeking more information" about why the exculpatory results were not
published by the National Cancer Institute.
Glyphosate is a key ingredient in Monsanto's top-selling weedkiller Roundup.
Gowdy's letter to NIH Director Francis Collins follows a June report by Reuters which found
that a senior scientist from the NCI knew that fresh data from a large research project
known as the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) showed no links between glyphosate and cancer.
Draft scientific papers dating from 2013 containing the data were never published.
Consequently, the information was not able to be taken into account during the March
2015 review of the pesticide by the World Health Organization's International Agency
for Research on Cancer (IARC).
An NIH spokeswoman told Reuters the NIH had received Gowdy's letter "and will be responding
directly to the committee."
Aaron Blair, the senior scientist at the NCI who knew about the data and also chaired the
IARC review, previously told Reuters the data was not published in time because there was
too much to fit into one scientific paper.
Gowdy's letter asked for "a briefing on these issues as soon as possible."
It also asked for information and any documents relating to the unpublished AHS data on glyphosate.
No one at IARC, which is based in Lyon, France, was immediately available for comment late
on Tuesday.
IARC concluded in 2015 that glyphosate, is a "probable human carcinogen."
It based its finding on "limited evidence" of carcinogenicity in humans and "sufficient
evidence" in experimental animals.
The agency's assessment is at odds with other international regulators who have said the
weedkiller is not a carcinogenic risk to humans.
The OGR has been looking into U.S. taxpayer funding of IARC.
It began investigating IARC's operations in 2016 after several lawmakers raised questions
about why U.S. taxpayers were funding an agency that often faces criticism for its work.
A letter by Republican Jason Chaffetz, then chairman of the House Committee on Government
and Oversight Reform, in September 2016, also addressed to the NIH director, described IARC
as having "a record of controversy, retractions, and inconsistencies" and asked why the NIH
continued to fund it.
In previous responses to questions about its assessments of glyphosate and many other substances,
IARC has defended them as scientifically sound.
The agency says its "monographs" — the name it gives its classifications of carcinogens
— are "widely respected for their scientific rigor, standardized and transparent process
and ... freedom from conflicts of interest."

Lawmakers seek missing information in review of Monsanto weedkiller

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