On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding and announced a partnership to pool resources for the EPAs ongoing review of glyphosate.
The agencies said in a press release that they will “exchange scientific information, identify research gaps, and expand research into potential human health effects” of glyphosate, a chemical weed killer used widely in farming.
In making the announcement, HHS Secretary Kennedy said, “Americans have a right to know what the best science tells us about the chemicals they encounter in their food, workplaces, and environment.”
He added, “We are bringing the scientific resources of HHS to the table to answer unresolved questions, strengthen the evidence, and give EPA the data it needs to conduct a rigorous review. We will ask the hard questions, demand sound science, and follow the evidence wherever it leads. This partnership advances President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda by putting the health of the American people first.”
The search for answers will be bolstered by HHS and EPA first creating a joint technical ‘working group’ comprised of experts from the EPA, including its Office of Pesticide Programs; and HHS groups, including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Toxicology Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health, and Food and Drug Administration. The new working group will formulate top science questions and, as the agency’s press release states, “coordinate research and information-sharing, and align its work with EPA’s registration-review schedule.”
Explained EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin: “FIFRA [Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act] requires us to reexamine registered pesticides on a recurring cycle against the best available science, and that is exactly what we are doing with glyphosate.”
Zeldin continued, “This agreement with Secretary Kennedy and HHS gives our scientists access to research capacity at HHS that addresses potential gaps in the record. EPA will weigh what that work produces the way we weigh any other scientific evidence. We will evaluate the relevant evidence, address important scientific questions, and show our work, providing insight into how the science informs our decisions, as we always do, to conduct the most transparent and thorough review possible.”
On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell, that federal pesticide laws preempt state law “failure-to-warn” claims against Monsanto/ Bayer, makers of Roundup. Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion, which overturned a Missouri jury verdict that had awarded damages to a plaintiff, John Durnell, who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma following long-term Roundup use.
Some MAHA leaders were angered by this SCOTUS decision.
The new EPA-HHS partnership will increase government transparency around scientific research into glyphosate.
The HHS press release offers specifics about the agencies’ investigation into glyphosate, stating, “EPA’s human health risk assessment will address exposure to glyphosate-based formulations, dietary exposure including from preharvest applications, and occupational exposure, and will evaluate the available cancer, genotoxicity, reproductive, and developmental evidence.”
It continues, “FIFRA and the Food Quality Protection Act require EPA to determine that there is a reasonable certainty of no harm from aggregate dietary exposure, with particular attention to infants and children. The working group will help EPA identify consequential data gaps that may warrant additional research, testing, or monitoring, including emerging areas such as the microbiome.”
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About time! We can only hope that the scientists conducting and reviewing this study aren't in Monsonto's pockets and being paid off as has been the norm!
All very well, so long as it leads to a reasonable result like "No glyphosate after New Year's Day, PERIOD. No glufosinate, PERIOD. No 'herbicide' sprays of any kind by 2028. No poison sprays of any kind at all by 2030. Minimum of five years in prison for anyone caught spraying glyphosate within a mile of anything a human might eat."