California to list glyphosate as cancer-causing

Regulators in California took a major step yesterday toward becoming the first state in the US to require the popular weed killer Roundup to have a label warning that it was known to cause cancer.

Officials announced that starting 7 July, the weed killer's main ingredient, glyphosate, will enter the list California maintains of potentially cancerous chemicals. According to officials, a year later, the listing could come with warning labels on the product.

However, it was not certain whether Roundup will get a warning label.

Monsanto, the chemical's maker, in an appeal after losing a court battle to block the labelling, argued that Roundup did not cause cancer and that the labels will harm the company's business.

State health regulators will also need to decide if Roundup contained a high enough amount of the chemical to pose a risk to human health. State officials received over 1,300 public comments.

"We can't say for sure," said Sam Delson, a spokesman for California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. "We're reviewing those comments."

Glyphosate, introduced by Monsanto in 1974 is colourless and odourless as an effective way of killing weeds while leaving crops and plants intact.

Monsanto said it will continue its legal fight against the designation, required under a state law known as Proposition 65, and termed the decision "unwarranted on the basis of science and the law."

According to commentators, the listing comes as the latest legal setback for the company, which had faced increasing litigation over glyphosate since the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer said that it is "probably carcinogenic" in a controversial ruling in 2015.

Environmental groups welcomed the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's (OEHHA's) move to list the chemical.

"California's decision makes it the national leader in protecting people from cancer-causing pesticides," said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity said yesterday, Reuters reported.