The Conservation Council of New Brunswick is looking for an across-the-board ban of the herbicide glyphosate in the province.
A report was recently released by the Chief Medical Officer of Health’s office on glyphosate which stated that there’s no evidence the use of herbicide in forestry here, which is higher than the national average, is a risk to the safety of workers. Tracy Glynn is the council’s forest program director.
“While the report talks about how the science is out on whether glyphosate is risky to worker safety, it’s very limited in its scope. It only looks at workers that are handling it but it’s not a complete human health risk assessment.”
Glynn says the report doesn’t look at the different health impacts on water and wildlife and that the government needs to do much more work on this.
“While the studies are being done, really this precautionary approach should be taken and it shouldn’t used.”
She says it’s time we move into 21st century forestry management that doesn’t have herbicides in our woods.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans.
