Republicans pissed at WHO for discovering RoundUp Causes Cancer. NOT The Onion.. [View all]

[CousinIT]

GOP threatens to cut off U.S. funding for the World Health Organization's cancer research over its finding that an active ingredient in herbicide Roundup is probably carcinogenic to humans.

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https://www.apnews.com/716e2a6e6ff14f1b8920c17e61c64353/GOP-lawmakers-take-aim-at-cancer-research-group-over-Roundup

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican lawmakers are threatening to cut off U.S. funding for the World Health Organization’s cancer research program over its finding that the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup is probably carcinogenic to humans.

House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith said Tuesday that the 2015 conclusion by the International Agency for Research on Cancer was fundamentally flawed and relied on cherry-picked science. The Texas lawmaker said he has serious concerns about anti-industry bias and a lack of transparency within the program, which is based in Lyon, France.

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IARC’s program assesses the hazard of whether chemicals can cause cancer in humans, often relying on studies where high doses were fed or injected into rats and mice to see whether they would develop tumors. The EPA’s risk assessments, which sometimes rely on industry-funded studies, look at the long-term threat pesticides and herbicides pose based on the anticipated uses and the relatively low levels of exposure expected for humans and animals.

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Records compiled by the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics show Monsanto has spent heavily on federal lobbying in recent years, with more than $4.3 million in spending during 2017. The company’s executives and political action committee made about $600,000 in federal political donations during the 2016 election cycle, with the bulk of the cash going to farm-state Republicans.

Jennifer Sass, a scientist with the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, defended the IARC’s results at the congressional hearing, saying the well-respected international group was the target of a well-financed campaign by the pesticide industry seeking to discredit its findings.

“This hearing is about the ability of a public health agency to call a carcinogen a carcinogen, even if it makes a huge amount of money for a powerful corporation,” Sass said Tuesday. “Are we willing to sell out the public’s right to know about harmful chemicals in the places we work live, and play, just so that Monsanto Co. can sell more glyphosate?”