The article "Toxins in your bread" (May 19), alleging that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup Ready herbicide, "might cause cancer" according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, is scientifically and medically unsubstantiated. The report has its origins in an assessment by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency of the WHO, that glyphosate "probably" causes cancer. Numerous scientific institutions and scientists have rejected these findings.Roundup Ready has been on the market for more than 40 years in more than 130 countries as the herbicide market leader. Is it possible that regulatory authorities in more than 130 countries can be so irresponsible as to approve a product for commercial use that is carcinogenic?The chairman of the panel that did the assessment, Dr Aaron Blair, scientist emeritus of the National Cancer Institute in the US, emphasised that the panel "definitely did not classify glyphosate as the cause of cancer".South African regulatory authorities have given glyphosate one of the safest ratings, blue label (caution). Yellow rating is harmful and red poisonous.In the 2010/11 season Roundup Ready herbicide was used on one million hectares of maize, 400000ha of soybeans and 10000ha of cotton. South African farmers do not produce poison.Worldwide, in 2012 Roundup Ready was used on 120 million hectares of crops. No substantiated scientific or medical evidence has been recorded anywhere in the world that glyphosate has been the cause of cancer.To meet the growing worldwide demand for glyphosate, Russia is building a glyphosate plant for$150-million. China has the world's largest glyphosate manufacturing facility. Production increased from320 000 tons in 2007 to 835 000 tons in 2010. ..