#7 Q&A: Kate Guyton, John Stuart (UK) EU Parliament Hearing on Glyphosate

Video #7 of 14 from European Parliament Hearing: ‘The Monsanto Papers and Glyphosate’ © European Union, 2017

On Oct. 12, 2017, European Parliament held a public hearing discussing the Monsanto Papers and glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer.

Glyphosate is the most widely-used agricultural chemical in the world. However, concerns have been raised over the chemical’s link to cancer.

In this hearing held by the Environment (ENVI) and Agriculture (AGRI) Committees in the EU Parliament, legislators, public health advocates, scientists and others convened to provide expert analysis on glyphosate, with particular attention paid to the stunning revelations from the Monsanto Papers, which can be viewed in their entirety here

The video above includes a question & answer (Q&A) session with Members of EU Parliament

Tom Vandenkendelaere (Belgium) and John Stuart (UK). The MEPs discussed the safety of glyphosate with Dr. Kate Guyton from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and Dr. Jose Tarazona, head of the pesticides unit at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

John Stuart asked Dr. Guyton a question about IARC that has become something of an industry talking point. Stuart provided four activities that IARC “considers as dangerous as glyphosate,” including cutting human hair, sitting in front of a log fire, eating processed meat and working night shifts. “If we are going to ban glyphosate on the strength of its carcinogenic risk, don’t you think we have to ban these things as well?”

In her answer, Dr. Guyton reminded Mr. Stuart that the tobacco industry made similar arguments years ago by saying different people were surviving tobacco smoking, so therefore, there is no risk.

“That is not the point,” said Dr. Guyton. “The point is that if you look across people who are smoking and you compare them to people who aren’t, you will see more cancers in the people who are [smoking].”

She added, “based on our evaluation of glyphosate, the State of California, which is about the sixth largest economy in the world, has required labeling of the product [glyphosate]. This is just a warning so that people are aware that this product is recognized by the State of California to cause cancer. If you do not have a warning, you will not have protection of workers.”

For all other videos from the EU Parliament Hearing on the Monsanto Papers, please visit the Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman YouTube page.

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