| | 17/February/20
| Fraud at German laboratory casts more doubts on 2017 re-approval of glyphosate A new report reveals that the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology (LPT) Hamburg committed fraud in a series of regulatory tests, several of which had been carried out as part of the glyphosate re-approval process in 2017. Even though “Good Laboratory Practice” (GLP) certification is required for such studies, at least 14% of such glyphosate regulatory studies came from LPT Hamburg. The laboratory was caught manipulating GLP toxicity studies by replacing dead animals with living ones, changing tumour findings to "inflammations", and generally distorting the data to please its clients. It is highly concerning that GLP studies are still considered the golden scientific standard by regulatory authorities who seem to believe that cheating under GLP is impossible. GMWatch Fraud at German testing laboratory: Whistleblowers speak out An initial case of fraud in the testing scandal at LPT (see above) was first revealed by the German magazine FAKT, which worked with the animal rights organisations Cruelty Free International and SOKO-Tierschutz to expose the findings of an undercover employee. After the initial investigation, other employees came forward with new information. In interviews broadcast by FAKT in November 2019, one employee told the magazine of testing fraud: “I not only experienced it, I did it myself. I forged documents; our studies. If the results did not meet expectations, I was asked to improve them. The data that did not fit in were marked so that I could enter on the blank protocol the new values that were given to me.” Independent Science News Analysis of animal studies shows glyphosate causes multiple tumours and cancers Prof Christopher Portier has published an analysis of all available animal studies on glyphosate that were of sufficient quality. The paper concludes that glyphosate causes a range of tumours and cancers. Referring to the verdict by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to the effect that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen, the paper states, "The analyses conducted for this review clearly support the IARC’s conclusion that there is sufficient evidence to say that glyphosate causes cancer in experimental animals. In contrast, the regulatory authorities reviewing these data appear to have relied on analyses conducted by the registrant and not their own analyses of the data. As such, they uniformly concluded that the subset of tumor increases they identified as showing an association with glyphosate were due to chance. Had regulatory authorities conducted a full reanalysis of all of the available evidence from the 13 animal carcinogenicity studies as was done here, it is difficult to see how they could reach any conclusion other than glyphosate can cause cancers in experimental animals." GMWatch Missouri peach farm awarded $265M damages in suit against BASF and Bayer A jury on Saturday awarded $265 million in punitive damages against Bayer and BASF to a southeastern Missouri peach farmer who argued that weedkiller dicamba that had drifted onto his orchards from other farms had severely damaged his trees. The punitive damages awarded to farmer Bill Bader came a day after the jury awarded him $15 million in actual damages, agreeing with his argument that dicamba had drifted over from other farms and severely damaged Bader Farms, which is one of the largest peach farms in Missouri. Bader's attorneys argued that his trees likely wouldn't survive the dicamba exposure. GMWatch Toxic residues through the back door Pesticide corporations and trade partners have put immense pressure on the EU to allow residues of certain hazardous pesticides - banned in Europe - to be present in food and feed imports. Facing an endless number of visits, letters and reports, complaints and threats at the WTO by the US, Canada and others, the European Commission dropped its original plan to ban residues of these dangerous chemical substances in imports. It is now up to the new Commission - with its ambitious European Green Deal - to change this approach and stand up for public health. Corporate Europe Observatory
DONATE TO GMWATCH __________________________________________________________ Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
Profiles: http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/GM_Watch:_Portal
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GMWatch/276951472985?ref=nf |
|
