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EFSA has shared the raw data that was used in the EU safety evaluation of the pesticide glyphosate. The information has been sent to a group of MEPs who submitted an official request to see the information.
Guilhem de Seze, Head of EFSA’s Regulated Products Department, said: “EFSA is fully committed to openness in its risk assessments and welcomes this opportunity to increase the transparency of the glyphosate evaluation.”
The information released Friday includes the raw data from all the genotoxicity and carcinogenicity studies used in the glyphosate assessment. Combined with the EFSA Conclusion and background documents (more than 6,000 pages), the raw data provide enough information to allow full independent scrutiny of the EU scientific assessment.
Dr. de Seze added: “EFSA is still assessing recent legal developments surrounding the disclosure of data, but in the meantime we are satisfied that what we are releasing today meets our commitment to transparency and the public right to know while complying with our obligations regarding the protection of commercially sensitive information.”
GM Watch stated Saturday; “it is extremely unlikely that the documents released will be in editable/copyable format to enable re-analysis of the data. Such re-analysis is vital to ascertain whether the conclusions about glyphosate’s safety or toxicity drawn by industry and regulators are valid.”
In addition, EFSA’s release of the data to a group of people who requested to see them falls short of the proactive publication of industry data on the Internet demanded by NGOs. But it’s a positive first step.
