“Monsanto papers” : the scientific sign of fake studies on glyphosate

XAVIER VILA/SIPA

Published the 07.10.2017 at 10h27

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Keywords :

Monsantopesticidecancer

Thunderclap for Monsanto, which is found again in the heart of a controversy.

According to the newspaper The World, scientists would have been paid to sign of the scientific publications written by employees of the company, and denying the negative effects of glyphosate on health.

The herbicide glyphosate, marketed by Monsanto under the name RoundUp, has for years been suspected of being harmful to health, even if the researchers continue to be divided. For its part, the European parliament must soon decide whether to ban or not the product in the countries of the EU.

Writing ghost

The journalists of the World are replongés in the now famous ” Monsanto papers “, these very many documents that the american giant has been forced to make public, in the context of numerous legal proceedings instituted against him in the United States.

Declassified during the summer, these documents reveal that Monsanto has resorted many times to the “ghostwriting” (writing the phantom).

The practice consists of preparation of scientific studies by non-experts (here, employees of Monsanto) then sign up by researchers for a fee. The idea is to increase the credibility of these publications, with names of recognized experts in the scientific community.

Some researchers have also affected significant amounts to write reviews of the scientific literature to shed light on the risk of cancer associated with the glyphosate. These are then published in scientific journals considered to be of high quality.

A year ago, a number of articles of the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology arrived to the conclusion that glyphosate was not carcinogenic. According to the authors, the data used previously to justify the risk of cancer were not sufficiently convincing.

These articles contradicted the conclusions of the International agency for Research on cancer, who in 2016 has classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic.