House Agriculture Committee leaders want to know why EPA posted - and then removed from its online regulatory dockets - risk assessments on two widely used but controversial herbicides.

 

Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, joined by Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the panel's ranking member, and Rodney Davis, R-Ill., who chairs the Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research, wrote EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy May 11 seeking answers to their questions on glyphosate and atrazine. A similar request focusing on glyphosate was made last week by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

 

On April 29, EPA posted to its regulatory dockets for glyphosate and atrazine more than a dozen documents related to its registration reviews for the chemicals. The document that got the most attention was a “final report” from the agency's Cancer Assessment Review Committee (CARC) that concluded glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in humans. The atrazine documents included a risk assessment - clearly labeled “preliminary” - on ecological impacts.

 

 But on May 2, the agency removed the CARC review, saying that document and 13 others were “preliminary” and “were inadvertently posted.”

 

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