Assembly cites cancer risk and DNA-damaging effects

The 119th German Medical Assembly in Hamburg has asked the German government and the EU Commission not to re-approve glyphosate, in accordance with the precautionary principle.

The Assembly said in a statement that its request was prompted by the finding of the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency IARC that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen and poses a genotoxic (damaging to DNA) risk.

The Assembly said that for genotoxic effects, there is no safe threshold of exposure. Therefore the prerequisite for any further long-term authorization would be independent studies showing that the levels of glyphosate herbicides that humans are exposed to cannot cause these effects.

The German Medical Assembly is the annual meeting of the German Medical Association, the “parliament of the medical profession” in Germany. It has been held every year since 1873, with the exception of 1912, 1915-1917, 1920, 1922/1923, and 1932-1947.