Report Finds Traces of a Controversial

Report Finds Traces of a Controversial Herbicide in Cheerios and Quaker Oats

An environmental research and advocacy group has found traces of a controversial herbicide in Cheerios, Quaker Oats, and other breakfast foods that it says could increase cancer risk for youngsters.

The report comes amid longstanding debate about the security of the chemical glyphosate, which federal regulators maintain isn't likely to cause cancer.

In its report, released Wednesday, the Environmental the working party said that it tested 45 samples of breakfast foods made up of oats grown in fields sprayed with herbicides.

Then, employing a strict standard the group developed, it found elevated levels of glyphosate in 31 of them.

“There are levels above what we could consider safe in very fashionable breakfast foods,” said Alexis Temkin, the group’s toxicologist who helped with the analysis within the report.

The findings by the group, which has opposed the utilization of pesticides which will find yourself in food, were reported widely. But the question of whether glyphosate is safe isn't so simple.

In fact, it's central to a raging international debate about the chemical that has spawned thousands of lawsuits, allegations of faulty research supporting and opposing the chemical and active defense of the herbicide from Monsanto, the corporate that helped develop it 40 years ago and helped turn it into the foremost popular weedkiller within the world.

Scott Partridge, a vice chairman at Monsanto, said in an interview on Wednesday that many studies had validated the security of glyphosate which doesn’t cause cancer.

He called the Environmental working party an activist group.

Central to critiques of the glyphosate, which prevents plants from photosynthesizing may be a 2015 decision by the planet Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer to declare glyphosate a probable carcinogen.

That spurred a federal case within us over such claims and prompted California to declare it a chemical that's known to cause cancer.

Last week, a California jury found that Monsanto had did not warn a faculty groundskeeper of the cancer risks posed by its weedkiller, Roundup, of which glyphosate is a lively ingredient.

The man’s lawyers said he developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using the weedkiller as a part of his job as a pest control manager for a California county establishment.

Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages. the corporate says it's facing quite 5,200 similar lawsuits.

Some research points to other potential health effects of glyphosate.

During a study published last year in Scientific Reports, a journal from the publishers of Nature, rats that consumed very low doses of glyphosate every day showed early signs of liver disease within three months, which worsened over time.

But many regulators and researchers say glyphosate is safe.

The classification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer has been disputed by us and European regulators.

And the recent major study, published by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, “observed no associations between glyphosate use and overall cancer risk.”

In December 2017, the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft human health risk assessment that said glyphosate was presumably not carcinogenic to humans.

The E.P.A. is currently reviewing public comments thereon assessment as a part of a typical review, and can choose whether or not the agency needs any “mitigation measures” by 2019, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Us Food and Drug Administration, which regulates domestic and imported food to form sure it doesn't exceed levels set by the E.P.A. said that supported 2016 samples, it had not found any violations of E.P.A. standards with glyphosate.

Newer samples are still under review, workplace spokeswoman said.

The F.D.A. said Wednesday that it might consider the Environmental Working Group’s findings.

Both Quaker Oats and General Mills, which makes Cheerios, said that their products were safe and met federal standards.

“While our products suit all safety and regulatory requirements, we are happy to be a part of the discussion and have an interest in collaborating with industry peers, regulators, and other interested parties on glyphosate,” a Quaker spokesman said Wednesday.

A General Mills spokeswoman said, “Our products are safe and without question, they meet regulatory safety levels.”