Tell EPA: Act Now on Glyphosate

EPA is allowing the most widely used pesticide in the world to remain on the market without a valid human health assessment. In fact, the continued registration of glyphosate is illegal because EPA cannot show that current uses do not pose unreasonable risks to people or ecosystems. 

In 2022, a federal court struck down EPA’s glyphosate human health assessment for dismissing cancer risks and endangered species protections. EPA withdrew the rest of its decision — yet glyphosate is still being sprayed across millions of acres every year.

Glyphosate is linked to cancer, especially non-Hodgkin lymphoma. EPA has never evaluated the real-world formulations people use for long-term harms, never required a dermal absorption study for farmworkers, and admits glyphosate threatens nearly all endangered species evaluated. 

Center for Food Safety filed a formal petition demanding EPA cancel all glyphosate uses. 

EPA has yet to respond. 

Add your name to tell EPA to review and grant CFS’s cancellation petition — and protect people, pollinators, and wildlife now! 

Petition to the US Environmental Protection Agency

Re: Take Immediate Action on CFS Petition to Cancel All Glyphosate Uses 
I am writing to you today as an individual greatly troubled by your agency’s delay in responding to Center for Food Safety’s cancellation petition of the herbicide glyphosate. 
In 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated EPA’s human health assessment for glyphosate, finding that the Agency unlawfully dismissed cancer risks and violated its own Cancer Guidelines. EPA subsequently withdrew the remainder of its registration review. As a result, glyphosate remains registered without a valid human health assessment—a fact EPA has never remedied. The continued approval of the most widely used pesticide in the world without a lawful safety determination is indefensible and unlawful under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).  
Glyphosate Causes Serious Harm
The scientific evidence is overwhelming. Glyphosate is linked to cancer—especially non-Hodgkin lymphoma—through strong epidemiological, animal, and mechanistic evidence. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” and EPA’s own scientists in the Office of Research and Development have acknowledged evidence consistent with carcinogenicity. Courts across the United States have repeatedly found glyphosate-based products to be a substantial factor in causing cancer in exposed individuals.  
The credibility of glyphosate’s safety claims continues to erode. A high-profile scientific paper long relied upon to downplay cancer risk was recently retracted after findings that it was ghostwritten by Monsanto officers and fundamentally flawed—further underscoring the extent to which the regulatory record surrounding glyphosate has been distorted and compromised. EPA cannot continue to rely on discredited science to justify inaction. 
EPA Lacks a Lawful Human Health Assessment 
EPA currently has no valid human health assessment demonstrating that glyphosate meets FIFRA’s safety standard. The Ninth Circuit vacated EPA’s human health assessment and cancer determination in full, and EPA withdrew the rest of its registration review. Glyphosate’s continued registration now rests on a 1993 decision made decades before today’s far higher levels of use, modern scientific understanding, or the widespread adoption of glyphosate-resistant crops. This regulatory vacuum violates EPA’s ongoing duty to ensure that registered pesticides cause no unreasonable adverse effects on human health or the environment.  
EPA Has Failed to Evaluate Real-World Exposure 
EPA has never evaluated the real-world formulations that people actually use for cancer or other long-term health risks. Glyphosate-based herbicides contain additional ingredients that increase toxicity and absorption, yet EPA’s assessments focus almost exclusively on the active ingredient alone—despite acknowledging that formulations are more harmful. 
EPA has also never required a dermal penetration study for glyphosate, even though dermal exposure is the primary route of exposure for farmworkers, applicators, landscapers, and groundskeepers. This failure leaves occupational health risks fundamentally unassessed and invalidates EPA’s claims of safety.  
Widespread Ecological Damage 
Glyphosate threatens monarch butterflies, pollinators, amphibians, aquatic organisms, birds, plants, and nearly every endangered species EPA has evaluated. EPA has admitted that glyphosate is likely to adversely affect 93% of listed endangered and threatened species and hundreds of critical habitats. Allowing glyphosate use to continue without completing required Endangered Species Act consultation places imperiled wildlife at continued risk of harm and extinction.  
Escalating Agricultural and Economic Costs 
Glyphosate-resistant weeds now infest more than 120 million acres of U.S. farmland, driving increased herbicide use, greater reliance on other toxic chemicals, rising production costs for farmers, and widespread drift damage to neighboring crops and ecosystems. These cascading harms undermine any claimed benefits of continued glyphosate use and further demonstrate that current registrations fail FIFRA’s cost-benefit standard.  
EPA Must Act 
EPA cannot continue to delay. The law is clear, the science is clear, and the risks are ongoing. 
We call on the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately: 
  • Review and grant Center for Food Safety’s petition to cancel all registrations of glyphosate; 
  • Suspend glyphosate uses pending completion of lawful cancellation proceedings; and 
  • Fulfill its statutory duty to protect farmworkers, families, ecosystems, and endangered species from unreasonable harm. 
EPA’s continued inaction places public health and the environment at risk. The Agency must act now. 
Thank you for your consideration. 

Will you add your name?