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THE IRISH GOVERNMENT has no plans to ban glyphosate, after Austria became the first EU country to approve a ban of the controversial herbicide.
Austrian members of parliament earlier this week approved a total ban on glyphosate, putting the country on track to becoming the first EU member to forbid all use of it.
Deputies voted in favour of a bill brought by the Social Democratic party to ban glyphosate products, suspected of causing cancer, as a “precautionary” measure.
The weedkiller has been closely connected with Roundup, a flagship product marketed worldwide by US giant Monsanto which was taken over by Germany’s Bayer in 2018.
Under fire for the takeover, the German company has vowed more “transparency” during the process of renewing the licence of glyphosate in the European Union.
In November 2017, EU states renewed the licence for the controversial weedkiller for another five years.
When its previous 15-year licence expired, an 18-month extension was granted while a deadlock in the EU dragged from June 2016, until Germany dropped its opposition to the pesticide.
Carcinogenic
A 2015 study by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer found that the herbicide glyphosate was classified as probably carcinogenic to humans, with a Group 2A classification.
Group 2A means that the agent probably has the potential to cause cancer in humans. This category is used when there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals.
The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, pointed to the approval of glyphosate by its two scientific agencies, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency, which do not classify the substance as carcinogenic.
But the EFSA’s independence was questioned after media reports suggested that pages of its report were copied and pasted from analyses in a 2012 Monsanto study.
Ireland use
In Ireland, Dublin City Council last year announced that it will trial alternatives to the use of glyphosate as a weedkiller on streets and in parks in Dublin.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture said that decision on the approval of and use of pesticides are “based on the scientific consensus view of all the relevant technical information from all sources”.
The spokesperson referenced the EFSA and ECHA saying that both had concluded “that glyphosate can be used safely without putting consumers or users at risk”.
“This process guided the decision to renew the authorisation of glyphosate within the European Union in 2017,” the spokesperson said.
The process for further renewal will begin in December of this year, with a full dossier submitted to the Member States Assessment Group on Glyphosate (France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden) by 15 June 2020.
“The Department will continue to monitor international peer-reviewed scientific evidence and the guidance provided by EFSA and ECHA,” the spokesperson said.
Roundup
Roundup has been the subject of three costly judgements in California in recent months and is now the subject of more than 13,000 claims in the United States.
Among Austria’s EU partners, France said in 2017 it hoped to ban glyphosate within three years, but President Emmanuel Macron has since said such a move could not be “100%”.
Critics of the Austrian parliament’s decision say that it might be illegal under EU law for individual members to ban substances that have been approved for use by the union as a whole.
The Austrian vote was made possible by the fall of a conservative government in May that left a void pending anticipated elections in September.
An ad-hoc grouping of social democrats, the far-right FPOe, ecologists and liberals managed to pass the bill during the last week of the country’s truncated legislative session.
With reporting from AFP
There is no need for the public to worry. There is just a gang war going on with our newly arrived guests shooting each other over turf. Continue in your brainwashed state. All OK – Swedish Police statement
@neilo: Did you not read the police statement, Neilo. Everything is fine. You can keep your head buried in the sand.
@Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd: It’s just as likely to be a neo-nazi gang.. Police are saying it’s not terror related..But I’m sure you have all the details…
@John Ryan: Where did I say it was terror related? Wake up John…
@neilo: Neilo, even the Swedish PM has highlighted the soaring gang crime in Sweden and has suggested deploying the army to combat it.
Keep the head in the sand…Its safe from bullets there…
@neilo: I read the snopes one Neilo. I knew beforehand that the statistics from Sweden are meaningless but read it anyway.
They highlight immigrants have failed to integrate which people know already. However, they can’t say anything about the nationality of the criminals. Why? Because Sweden refuses to collect this data.
Nice try Neilo….
@neilo: Here’s a stat for you Neilo.
Almost 75% of gang members are first or second generation immigrants…
Wonderful statistic for your multicultural dream right there…
Taxi for Sleepy Eyes Cuck!
“The gang wars serve as a constant reminder of Sweden’s failed migration and integration policies”
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/02/violent-crime-in-sweden-is-soaring-when-will-politicians-act/
@neilo:
This should interest you, right up your alley I reckon :))
https://youtu.be/AesiuE-D1Ms
Over the last two decades or so, Sweden has carried out an experiment in social engineering on a colossal scale. There’s no going back now.
@Mack: There’s no going back now … carry on with the hyperbole and the far-right gibberish.
Why are you gus reporting on this story in particular. This stuff happens all the time in Sweden. Grenade attacks, teenagers walking on streets with ak47s, the need for heavily fortified police stations, microphones on streets so police can hear when women are attacked etc.. none of this ever gets a mention. What gives?
@neilo: You are a paid shill. F off.
@neilo: There’s no point engaging with a paid shill because they are not paid to debate, they are paid to disrupt, obscure, deflect and mislead. So see ya bucko
@neilo: So it’s not immigrant gangs? Is that what you’re saying? Blonde haired swedish hottie hairdressers fighting a turf war over customers is it?
Shooting in #Malmo City Centre in Sweden, man fires automatic weapon at crowd celebrating win of Swedish national team and there is no reason to announce an alarm??
@neilo: Wait until the Euro collapses followed by the EU. You will then see a global recession that will make the 2008 crisis look like an economic boom…
@neilo: looks like it was the new swedish gangs though buddy old pal.
@neilo: You shill in vain. Give it up. Nobody is buying it dude.
Trump will be all over this.
@Paul Furey: They’d be so lucky. Something might actually get done about it them. Wakey wakey, this is a regular occurrence in Sweden, it’s just not reported on here.
Gang incident in Malmo, nobody dead … blame Muslims/immigrants, proclaim that the Sky is falling …
Kinahan–Hutch feud in Dublin, 18 dead, blame … ???
@Brendan O’Brien: who blamed Muslims. Shame on you for mentioning them.
@Brendan O’Brien: M I 5?
@Brendan O’Brien: ONLY IN AMERICA!
Terrorism in Malmo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%9310_Malm%C3%B6_shootings
@Brendan O’Brien: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grenade_attacks_in_Sweden “According to Swedish police, the use of hand grenades in crime is unprecedented in all comparable European and non-European countries, and the only countries with similar characteristics are those with WAR LIKE conditions, such as Mexico with the ongoing drug war and one study suggests it had four to five times as many fatal shootings per capita as Norway and Germany from 2008-2014″
@Brendan O’Brien: Nice cherry picked example there btw.
Nothing to see here in our pussy hat utopia
@John Ryan: I sure have jonny boy, a full report in the post. What you doing to aid society and the police? Armchair warrior….
@Spooky Obama: dude? Lol, has that term come full circle like everything else…..lol
@Benking23: Oh wow, well you’ve obviously solved it so..Have you forwarded the conclusions of your investigation to the cops there ? I’m sure they’re dying to hear from the world’s greatest armchair detective..
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