Key facts
- Health Canada's Pesticides Regulatory Directorate is now monitoring glyphosate under its continuous oversight policy.
- This policy involves tracking and evaluating new information on pesticide safety as it becomes available.
- The decision to apply continuous oversight to glyphosate was made last fall.
- Environmental groups cite new evidence, including the redaction of a 2000 study, as grounds for a special review of glyphosate.
- Bayer states that this new monitoring process does not indicate a health concern or activate special reviews.
- Health Canada previously stated in 2019 that no global regulatory authority considers glyphosate a cancer risk at current exposure levels.
Health Canada's Pesticides Regulatory Directorate has incorporated glyphosate, the world's most widely used herbicide, into its continuous oversight policy. This new approach, decided upon last fall, involves ongoing monitoring and evaluation of new scientific information regarding the safety of pesticides, moving away from scheduled reviews. Environmental groups, such as Ecojustice, argue that recent developments, including the redaction of a 2000 study due to allegations of ghostwriting by Monsanto employees, warrant a special review of glyphosate. A special review is triggered when there are reasonable grounds to believe a pesticide poses unacceptable risks to human health or the environment.
Bayer, the manufacturer of glyphosate-based products like Roundup, stated that this continuous monitoring process is a new way of evaluating all pesticides and does not indicate a health concern or automatically trigger special reviews. The company emphasized that thousands of studies have been conducted on glyphosate's safety, with the vast majority showing no Monsanto involvement, and that leading regulatory bodies worldwide concur that glyphosate can be used safely and is not carcinogenic. Health Canada reiterated its 2019 position that no global regulatory authority considers glyphosate a cancer risk at current human exposure levels, stating that the redaction of the 2000 study does not alter its established stance. Despite regulatory assurances, class-action lawsuits in multiple countries, including Canada, claim glyphosate has caused non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other cancers.