Claims That Criticism of IARC Are Industry-Driven Do IARC More Harm Than Good

By Geoffrey Kabat — August 23, 2018

Neil Pearce, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has risen to the defense of the controversial International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), but falling back on hollow claims of IARC's superiority will do  little to dispel the serious questions about the Agency's process.

Pearce opens his piece by endorsing last week’s ruling by a California court finding that Monsanto – the maker of the most widely-used herbicide Roundup -- was liable for a rare cancer that developed in a grounds-keeper who had used the herbicide. Roundup contains the chemical glyphosate as its active ingredient. The court decision awarded $289M to the plaintiff.

Pearce proceeds to point out, approvingly, that IARC’s 2015 assessment that glyphosate was a “probable carcinogen” played a prominent role in the court’s decision. One would expect that in what follows he would have delved into the controversy surrounding the question of whether glyphosate is a carcinogen and, thus, whether there is a justification for public concern........To Read More...