Glyphosate report shows no increased health risk: Dr. Jennifer Russell

The provincial government has released its long-awaited report on the use of glyphosate and it says there is "no increased risk for New Brunswickers exposed to glyphosate."

Dr. Jennifer Russell, the acting chief medical officer of health, said in a written statement the government acknowledges that "some uncertainty about glyphosate exists."

But based on itsreview, she saidexposures here "are similar to or less than elsewhere."

Russell saidno additional actions arerequired to protect human health asrules forglyphosateuse aremore stringent in New Brunswick.

• Health report onglyphosatesought by environmental group
• Herbicide chemical glyphosate 'probably carcinogenic,' WHO agency finds

Glyphosateis a herbicide commonly used in household garden weedkillers but is also used by farmers and industry to control undergrowth.

Russellfound no risk to human health by the region's biggest user, the New Brunswickforestry industry, which accounts for61 per cent of the glyphosateused in the province and is thethesecond biggest per capitauser of glyphosateinthe forestry sectorin Canada,after Ontario.

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer saysglyphosate "is probablycarcinogenic to humans."

Russell said the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency is continuing its risk assessment and her officewill monitor the situation.

Dr.Eilish Cleary, the former chief medical officer of health,was working on the glyphosate study when she was placed on leave last year, prompting environmental activists to speculate she was being silenced.

After Cleary was fired in December, the deputy minister of health, Tom Maston, released a statement that the decision was not "about the medical and scientific work being undertaken by the office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health."

Cleary said recentlythere's not a good enough understanding of chemicals, such as glyphosate, in public health.

Russell says the scientific consensus onglyphosateriskis"elusive."