A tractor sprays herbicide in a soybean field near Brasilia, Brazil, February 12, 2022. ADRIANO MACHADO/Portal
A criminal complaint against Bayer and the industrial consortium requesting the re-approval of glyphosate (GRG, for Glyphosate Renewal Group) was filed on Wednesday, September 27, with the public prosecutor’s office in Vienna, Austria, by a coalition of non-governmental organizations that included the Austrian Global 2000 (on the initiative of a first appeal in 2019), the German branch of the network Pesticide Action Network and the future of French generations.
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NGOs believe that these companies “hidden” certain risks associated with glyphosate during the reassessment of glyphosate by European health authorities. Their complaint comes as bloc member states prepare to vote on October 13 on the European Commission’s proposal to extend the controversial herbicide’s approval for 10 years.
The associations assert that Bayer and the GRG did not submit any “unfavorable” data in their possession on the toxicity of glyphosate to brain development when applying for renewed approval. A “obfuscation” strategy that may have “biased” regulators’ risk assessment in favor of reauthorization, according to the associations that filed the complaint.
“How can we make a political decision based on expertise that does not take into account certain impacts and certain data?” asks François Veillerette, spokesman for Générations Futures. We call on France and other states to oppose the reauthorization.” Contacted by Le Monde, Bayer assures that “it has not concealed any scientific study” and that it has “always acted in complete transparency, fully complying with European Union regulations complied with”.
Study withdrawn by European authorities
European regulations force pesticide manufacturers to inform authorities of any studies they have (including scientific publications) on the dangers of the molecules they plan to place on the market. A rule that, according to the associations, was not adhered to in the last application for the re-approval of glyphosate.
The complaint mentions a study on neurodevelopmental toxicity (DNT, for developmental neurotoxicity) discovered in 2022 by two Swedish researchers and conducted in 2001 by the company Syngenta, a member of the GRG. The study in question, submitted to the American regulator, was withheld from the European authorities, who only discovered it in 2022 thanks to the work of Swedish researchers Axel Mie and Christina Rudén (Stockholm University).
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