Viewpoint: US should cut funding to ‘politically-driven’ IARC cancer agency

[September 19th], Congress passed an appropriations bill that kept funding intact for the …. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The House version of the bill originally included a provision that would have placed strings on U.S. funding for IARC …. IARC produces cancer classifications for chemicals and other environmental factors ….

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The Competitive Enterprise Institute details why IARC is so problematic in a paper released [September 20th]. The paper demonstrates that not only should the HHS stop funding IARC, policymakers around the world should disregard its cancer classifications.

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Dr. Timothy Pastoor, CEO of Pastoor Science Communications, pointed out the absurdities of IARC’s hazard-focused approach at a congressional hearing earlier this year ….  the organization’s refusal to consider the potency and exposure levels [of chemicals] …. explains why IARC’s classification system absurdly places plutonium and salty fish in the same “known carcinogen” category.

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The 2015 classification of the weed killer glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” offers an egregious example of a classification that appears politically driven …. the IARC working group enlisted Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) senior contributing scientist Christopher Portier …. as an “advisor” on the decision. Given EDF’s strident anti-chemical agenda, it should have no influence over [IARC]. Incidentally, Portier had a serious financial conflict of interest. You can read more here about that scandal.

Read full, original article: Health and Human Services Secretary Should Halt Grants to UN Cancer Agency