(CNN)
Glyphosate, an herbicide that remains the world's most ubiquitous weed killer,
raises the cancer risk of those exposed to it by 41%, a new analysis says.
Researchers
from the University of Washington evaluated existing studies into the chemical
-- found in weed killers including Monsanto's popular Roundup -- and concluded
that it significantly increases the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a
cancer of the immune system.
"All
of the meta-analyses conducted to date, including our own, consistently report
the same key finding: exposure to GBHs (glyphosate-based herbicides) are
associated with an increased risk of NHL," the authors wrote in a study
published in the journal Mutation Research.
The
potential carcinogenic properties of glyphosate are the subject of widespread
scientific debate. The US Environmental Protection Agency said in a 2017 draft
risk assessment that the herbicide "is not likely to be carcinogenic to
humans," while the European Food Safety Authority maintains a similar
stance. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, said the same year that
glyphosate is a "safe and efficient weed control tool."
In
2015, however, the World Health Organization's International Agency for
Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to
humans." Moreover, the chemical has triggered multiple lawsuits from
people who believe that exposure to the herbicide caused their non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma. In 2017, CNN reported that more than 800 people were suing Monsanto;
by the following year, that figure was in the thousands.
One
high-profile case against Monsanto was that of Dewayne Johnson, a former school
groundskeeper diagnosed with terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2014. In August
2018, a judge ordered Monsanto to pay Johnson $289 million in damages, an award
subsequently reduced to approximately $78 million after Monsanto appealed.
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