Washington ¨C A flagship study that declared the weedkiller Roundup posed no serious health risks has been retracted with little fanfare, ending a 25-year saga that exposed how corporate interests can distort scientific research and influence government decision-making.
Published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology in 2000, the paper ranks in the top 0.1% of citations among studies on glyphosate ¡ª the key ingredient in Roundup, owned by agri-giant Monsanto and at the center of cancer lawsuits worth billions of dollars.
In his retraction note last week, the journal¡¯s editor-in-chief, Martin van den Berg, cited a litany of serious flaws from failing to include carcinogenicity studies available at the time to undisclosed contributions by Monsanto employees and even questions around financial compensation.
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