The French Health and Environment Agency (ANSES) said Monday that it bans dozens of glyphosate-based herbicides because the data are not enough to eliminate health risks.
ANSES revokes a marketing license for 36 glyphosate products that will no longer be approved for use after 2020, the statement said.
These products account for nearly three quarters of the glyphosate products sold last year in France, the largest agricultural producer in the European Union.
Applications for the approval of four new glyphosate-based products have also been rejected, ANSES added.
Glyphosate, first developed by the Bayer Monsanto division under the Roundup brand, has been the subject of controversy since the World Health Organization concluded in 2015 that this active substance is likely to cause cancer.
Bayer denies these allegations, but faces potentially costly lawsuits in the United States, while politicians in the European Union are discussing direct prohibitions of glyphosate products.
Austria, which is trying to become the first European country to ban any use of glyphosate-containing products, said on Monday that the ban could not enter into force on January 1, as planned because the European Commission was not duly notified.
In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to stop using glyphosate in France for three years, just as Austria goes beyond the EU’s decision to extend its use for five years.
However, the Macron government instead set a goal of phasing out glyphosate by 2021, unless there are viable alternatives.
ANSES reports that it has studied 69 glyphosate-based products available in France, as well as 11 applications for launching new products.
“ANSES announces that 36 of these products will be removed from the market and will no longer be available from the end of 2020 due to a lack of scientific data that would eliminate all genotoxic risk,” the Agency said.
The list of products subject to recall includes several versions of Roundup and some other products owned by Bayer, as well as other brands sold by about a dozen other manufacturers.
Glyphosate is patented and sold worldwide by a large number of other chemical groups besides Bayer.
Bayer noted in an e-mail statement that the company will comply with the ANSES decision, but plans to provide the Agency with additional data to “work on extending permits to sell our glyphosate-based products in France.”
ANSES says it will complete the review of glyphosate-based products by the end of next year, and that only products that meet EU criteria and do not have adequate alternatives will be allowed to be sold in France.
Bayer's homeland, Germany, will ban the substance from late 2023.
(Source: www.reuters.com).
Read more: https://www.agroxxi.ru/