(Traduction en français disponible ici)
OCLA researcher Dr. Denis Rancourt has written a detailed letter to the Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) asking for the herbicide glyphosate to be banned in Canada.
The letter, entitled “Glyphosate should be banned, not increased” was submitted in response to the PMRA’s invitation for comments from the public on its proposal to increase the maximum residue limit of glyphosate on many types of crops.
There is a strong correlation between glyphosate use and the incidence and death rates for many chronic diseases. This is an area of extensive scientific research, which Dr. Rancourt reviews in his letter.
The letter’s Conclusion includes the following statements:
More than 38 weed species developed resistance to glyphosate, causing 20 countries to restrict or ban its use. The always increasing weed resistance to glyphosate drives increases in glyphosate application. You appear to be motivated to accommodate these foreseeable increases rather than primarily motivated to protect the health of Canadians.
If the present Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) are based on “a thorough risk assessment to confirm that eating foods treated with a pesticide would not result in any human health concern to any segment of the population, including pregnant women, infants, children and seniors”, as publicly asserted by Health Canada (“Glyphosate in Canada”, 28 August 2020; see above), then it is inconceivable how you would have concluded that new scientific research supports increasing the MRLs. In fact, the recent public-domain scientific work unambiguously points in the opposite direction: towards fundamental re-assessment, given newly identified risks.
