An Irish MEP has urged Dáil Éireann to restrict over the counter sales of glyphosate weed killers like Roundup over health concerns.

Grace O'Sullivan's call follows the EU's decision to approve the chemical for use for another decade after EU member states failed twice to deliver a majority vote on the issue.

The World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans" in 2015.

Read more: 'Roundup' weed killer to be approved for use for another 10 years

America's EPA and the EU still rate glyphosate as non-carcinogenic but German multinational Bayer, which bought the developer Monsanto in 2018, has since faced a series of legal actions because of its alleged links to cancer - which it denies.

Research by the University of Galway and the German Environment Agency found traces of glyphosate in a quarter of the Irish people they tested for it - both from farming and non-farming backgrounds.

Despite ongoing concerns about the chemical's potential impact on human health as well as wildlife and pollinators like bees, EU member states were unable to reach an agreement on whether to renew it or reject its approval following votes in October and November. But the EU says member states are also free to make their own decisions on its use.

Irish Green Party MEP Grace O'Sullivan had been campaigning against its renewal at EU level despite Irish Government support for the chemical. She has called on EC President Ursula von der Leyen to intervene on the approval because of reports showing the impact of glyphosate on human health and biodiversity.

Now she is calling on the Irish Government to restrict its over the counter sale here.

Ms O'Sullivan told us: "The decision to allow Roundup and similar glyphosate products to stay on the EU market is a costly mistake for people and nature. It has made its way into our rivers and now also into our bloodstream. Farmers across the planet are taking the manufacturers to court for the long term health effects they are now suffering from exposure to glyphosate.

"Even if the EU continues to allow it, Ireland should now move to restrict its sale over the counter in garden shops where it is currently available to anyone who wants to spray it regardless of the impact on family and friends. This has been done in Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg. It's time we do the same."

A 2023 REACH certification for the product's use in Ireland outlines how animal testing of the product on rabbits found it can cause slight skin irritation or corrosion and serious eye damage.

A Bayer Crop Science Reports states rats were used to test its lethal dose [LD50] in terms of oral, inhalation and acute dermal toxicity and guinea pigs to check for respiratory or skin sensitisation.

The report says it is "harmful if swallowed", "causes serious eye damage" and "toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects".

The IFA welcomed the decision to renew permission to use glyphosate. Its national grain chair, Kieran McEvoy, said: "Access to glyphosate products is critical for Irish and EU tillage farmers, particularly with an ever-increasing focus on reducing emissions from agriculture. Increased utilisation of cover crops; greater use of multi-species swards in grassland; and reduced tillage establishment methods are simply not possible without glyphosate herbicides."

A spokesperson for DAFM said: "The European Commission announced on 16 November 2023 that it will adopt a decision to renew the EU approval of glyphosate for a period of ten years. Ireland supported the Commission’s proposal based on the exceptionally detailed assessments performed by EFSA and ECHA.

"Glyphosate has now been reviewed at EU level twice within recent years, in unprecedented detail, with no critical concerns being identified on either occasion. The current assessment is the most detailed review ever performed for a pesticide in the EU.

"The Commission will publish an EU Regulation implementing its decision in the coming weeks, which will specify detailed conditions for Member States to take account of when considering future applications at national level for renewal of authorisation of plant protection products containing glyphosate. Ireland, in considering applications for approval of plant protection products containing glyphosate, will only authorise products that satisfy the product authorisation conditions in the Regulation, following a comprehensive evaluation procedure."

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