Vila do Bispo council bans the use of Roundup

07 March 2017

glyphosate Vila do Bispo councillors have approved a motion to ban the use of Roundup by all municipal workers and contracted council service providers.

The motion was presented by the Left Bloc for the February 25th meeting and called for a halt to the use of glyphosate, a Monsanto herbicide branded as Roundup, which has been at the heart of debate as to whether the chemical can cause cancer in those exposed to the product.

The Left Bloc proposal listed several decisions and recommendations at an international level that advocate the suspension of the use of Roundup and showed the dangers it poses to people and animals that are exposed to it.

In April last year, the European Parliament said the use of glyphosate products should be "banned in all urban areas."

In March 2014, Quercus and the Plataforma Transgénicos Fora launched a public appeal to Portugal's councils to stop using glyphosate in public areas. The appeal warned of the environmental and public health risks in continuing to use the weedkiller.

See: http://algarvedailynews.com/news/8420-call-for-roundup-ban-in-portugal-due-to-cancer-link

In June 2016, the European Commission extended the licence for glyphosate for 18 months. Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis announced the last-minute re-licensing on June 28th despite failing three times in a row to secure a majority decision from the European Union’s member states.

Europe’s opinion of the widely used pesticide has been divided since March 2015 when the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a ‘probable carcinogen.’

To complicate matters further, other regulatory agencies such as the European Food Safety Authority, declared glyphosate as 'safe' that November.

While all of this is going on, Vila do Bispo has made its own mind up and banned the herbicide to the benefit of its workers and residents.

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