EPA Opens Review of New Glyphosate Research
The Environmental Protection Agency has opened a 30-day public review of newer research on glyphosate, a widely used herbicide in agricultural, commercial and residential products. The action is an evidence-gathering step for a future human-health assessment—not a new finding that glyphosate is unsafe or carcinogenic.
EPA announced the literature-search release on August 25, 2026, and updated the agency page on August 26. The agency is asking researchers, industry groups, farm workers, pesticide users and members of the public to identify relevant peer-reviewed studies that may be missing from its search.
What EPA released
The search covers research published since EPA’s previous open-literature review in 2017. The released document describes the search terms, databases, screening standards and multistep process EPA used to determine whether studies may be relevant and reliable enough to inform the updated assessment.
EPA says commenters should provide full citations, including the authors, publication date, journal and article title. When possible, they should also provide access to the complete study and its supporting data, or clear information about how the agency can obtain them. That information will help EPA evaluate a study’s quality, reproducibility and relevance.
Comments are due September 24, 2026, through Regulations.gov under docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361. The Federal Register notice is document 2026-17301, published as 91 FR 54870.
What changes now—and what does not
The notice does not change glyphosate registrations, food-residue tolerances or product labels. Consumers should continue to follow existing federal rules and product directions unless EPA issues a separate final action.
A detected residue also is not automatically a food-safety violation. EPA sets legal tolerance levels for residues on food and animal feed. A residue can be detected while remaining below the applicable tolerance.
The September 24 deadline applies to the completeness of EPA’s literature search. It is not the deadline for comments on the agency’s eventual health conclusions. EPA says the updated human-health risk assessment is targeted for completion in late 2026, followed by another public-comment period.
Why the review matters
The forthcoming assessment is expected to examine potential exposure through food, drinking water, residential use and occupational pesticide work. That could affect how EPA evaluates risks for consumers, farm workers, pesticide applicators, people living near treated areas and sensitive populations.
EPA’s pesticide-risk process separates several questions. Scientists examine whether a substance can cause harm, how effects change with dose, how much exposure people may receive and how those findings combine under expected use conditions. The final risk characterization also considers assumptions, uncertainty and safety factors.
EPA’s previous position
EPA’s 2017 human-health risk assessment did not identify risks of concern from registered glyphosate uses when products were used according to their labels. The agency said it evaluated dietary exposure, including drinking water, residential exposure, aggregate exposure and risks to farm workers and nearby communities, including sensitive populations such as infants, children and pregnant women.
EPA also concluded in 2017 that glyphosate was not likely to be carcinogenic to humans. That differs from the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s classification of glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The evaluations addressed different questions and used different methods: a hazard classification asks whether a chemical can cause cancer under some conditions, while EPA’s risk assessment considers toxicity together with expected exposure and use conditions.
Why glyphosate remains contested
Glyphosate has remained the subject of scientific, regulatory and legal disputes. The different assessments do not represent a new EPA conclusion in August 2026; they show why the agency’s updated evaluation will matter to consumers, workers and pesticide users.
Separate litigation has also kept Roundup and glyphosate in the public spotlight, but the current EPA action is narrower. It concerns which peer-reviewed studies should be considered in the agency’s updated scientific review, not the outcome of a lawsuit or a new product restriction.
What readers can do and watch next
People who want to participate can submit relevant, accessible peer-reviewed studies or comments through Regulations.gov by September 24, 2026. Submissions should identify the study fully and provide the article, study report and supporting data when possible.
EPA’s updated human-health risk assessment is expected in late 2026, although that timing is an agency target rather than a guaranteed publication date. The assessment could inform later decisions about protections, mitigation measures or label requirements, but no such change has been announced as part of the August literature-search notice.
For now, the practical takeaway is straightforward: current federal rules remain in place while EPA gathers additional evidence before reaching its next formal health-risk conclusions.
Sources
Look for updates to this story
Discover more from Interactive News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.