Using Elementary School Science

Using Elementary School Science

This afternoon is my fourth grade-son’s science fair and he has been learning about making a hypothesis and then testing that through experiments. It struck me as ironic that the recent release of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) didn’t appear to use even simple elementary school science in their study in which they identify glyphosate as a probable cause of cancer.
Washington State University Environmental Toxicology Professor Allan Felsot says that he has reviewed the study and finds it lacks credibility. For example one of the main forms of cancers mentioned in the IARC study is non-hodgkins lymphoma. Dr. Felsot says
Felsot: “Then you would predict If it is truly a carcinogen then as you use more and more glyphosate you would see a big increase in non-hodgkins lymphoma. The rate was steepest of non-hodgkins lymphoma before 1996. After 1996 when Roundup-Ready crops increased nearly exponentially. The level of non-hodgkins lymphoma - that is the incident rate — began leveled off. In fact it is nearly flat in the time that all of these Roundup-Ready crops were being use. So that goes against the idea that it is a carcinogen because it doesn’t match what you would predict. In other words the prediction was not met so you reject the hypothesis.”
In addition to that LARGE scientific blunder — the IARC cites one references one study to support their conclusion but when Dr. Felsot reviewed the original study — the author actually down played any possible carcinogen hazards of glyphosate.
Previous ReportUSPB Trade Mission Trips to Myanmar and Cambodia
Next ReportFarm Mom of the Year