Written question – Assessment of the cancer risk from pesticide exposure – E-002283/2025

Question for written answer  E-002283/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (Renew)

The Dutch Board for the Authorisation of Plant Protection Products and Biocides (Ctgb) recently informed the Dutch agriculture minister that the cancer risk has been incorrectly assessed for years in the pesticide authorisation process, including for glyphosate. Instead of a one-sided test specifically aimed at determining cancer risks, a less accurate two-sided test has been the norm.

• 1.Can the Commission urge the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as soon as possible to tighten the guidelines for assessing cancer risks in the pesticide authorisation process, and to make the more accurate one-sided test the norm?
• 2.The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) states that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic, while EFSA’s risk assessment states that exposure to glyphosate is ‘unlikely’ to lead to cancer in humans. To what extent was the EFSA assessment based on the less accurate two-sided test?
• 3.Is the Commission willing to encourage EFSA and the authorisation authorities in the Member States to have pesticides that have been approved in the past based on the two-sided test re-evaluated using the more accurate one-sided method, which also takes stacking effects and cocktail effects into account?

Submitted: 5.6.2025