AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST IARC

By. Lee N. Smith

       The American Chemistry Council has launched a public campaign  to change how the International Agency for Research on Cancer-IARC makes decisions about the carcinogenicity of chemicals.This issignificant in California for among other reasons it impacts Prop 65 listings.

        ACC launched the campaign Jan. 25, 2107 said IARC’s decision-making on the cancer-causing potential of chemicals “suffers from persistent scientific and process deficiencies that result in public confusion and misinformed policy-making.” “Public policy must be based on a transparent, thorough assessment of the best available science,” said Cal Dooley, president and CEO of Washington-based ACC, in a statement. “Currently, IARC’s monographs do not meet this standard though U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for over two-thirds of the international program’s budget.”

ACC,  said IARC’s decisions do not use realistic exposure scenarios when informing the public. ACC website that was launched can be found here http://campaignforaccuracyinpublichealthresearch.com/

Recent issues regarding IARC concern coffee and roundup which is the subject of other suits, 

At one point  (IARC) warned coffee drinkers that coffee might cause cancer. However, IARC revisited its decision and downgrading it from “possibly carcinogenic” to “not classifiable.” 

 The latest dispute  concerns glyphosate, an ingredient in a widely-used weed killers, Roundup, made by Monsanto.In March 2015, an IARC monograph concluded that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic.” Yet seven months later the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), an independent agency funded by the EU, published a different assessment, saying glyphosate is “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans.”