What is the IARC?
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is an agency of the World Health Organization (WHO). The IARC has various roles, including studying available evidence to try and understand the causes of different types of cancer. The results of this research are published in a series of IARC monographs.
How does the IARC decide what to investigate?
The IARC has a detailed list of questions and answers about its process published on the IARC website. In brief, chemicals or other factors suspected of causing cancer are first evaluated by an expert advisory group. If the advisory group decides further research is needed, it recommends the IARC fully assess the available information.
How does the IARC decide whether a chemical is able to cause cancer?
The IARC monographs assess the strength of evidence that a chemical or other factor is a cancer hazard. Details about the types of information the IARC considers and how it is assessed is described on the IARC website.
What did the IARC decide about glyphosate?
The report released by the IARC in 2015 classified glyphosate as 'probably carcinogenic to humans'. It is important to note that according to the IARC preamble, the IARC monographs 'identify cancer hazards even when risks appear to be low'. This means the IARC hazard assessments cannot be directly compared with the risk assessments completed by regulators for the purposes of registration of a pesticide product.
The IARC assessment looked at the hazard of glyphosate as a cancer-causing agent. Many other everyday substances are also classified as probably carcinogenic to humans. This includes high-temperature frying, some shift work, drinking very hot beverages, and consumption of red meat.