by Julie Kelly
National Review Online

The prognosis for a controversial cancer agency looks terminal.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) now faces congressional inquiries, legal challenges, and harsh criticism from the scientific community that are shredding the agency’s credibility and threatening its future. The Lyon, France–based group is an arm of the World Health Organization and has received millions in U.S. tax dollars, funding that is now being questioned by top lawmakers on Capitol Hill including House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz. Congress is also investigating whether IARC is colluding with officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to advance a political agenda rather than sound science…

But despite the fact that IARC gets U.S. tax money, it doesn’t feel bound by U.S. law. IARC officials counseled its working-group members to ignore Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), which is seeking documents related to the glyphosate monograph. IARC working-group members include scientists from American public universities and EPA employees who are required to comply with FOIA. (A Mississippi State University professor offered his resignation from a subsequent IARC group in response to the group’s request to avoid FOIA inquiries.) E&E Legal blasted the cancer agency: “Unfortunately, by their behavior, every player in this unfolding drama thinks they have a right to hide public records from the public. They do not.”

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