A Retracted Study on Roundup Reignites Debate Over Its Potential Cancer Risk
Roundup is one of the world’s most widely used herbicides. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
The 2000 study in the scientific journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology had concluded that the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, did not pose a cancer risk to humans.
A scientific journal has retracted a bedrock study which found that glyphosate — the active ingredient in one of the most widely used herbicides on the planet — does not pose a human health risk, igniting a fresh debate over the chemical’s possible link to cancer.
Scientists and regulators have worked for years to determine whether glyphosate — the active ingredient in Roundup, which was produced by Monsanto until the company was acquired by Bayer in 2018 — causes cancer. European and U.S. officials have not classified it as a carcinogen, while the World Health Organization deemed it “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015.
Last Friday the scientific journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology retracted a 2000 study that concluded “under present and expected conditions of new use, there is no potential for Roundup herbicide to pose a health risk to humans.”
The retraction from the co-editor in chief said evidence suggests that Monsanto employees “may have contributed to the writing of the article without proper acknowledgment as co authors,” the study’s authors may have been paid by Monsanto without disclosing it and that the findings about its cancer risk “are solely based on unpublished studies from Monsanto.” 12-05-25
