EPA And HHS Announce New Scientific Partnership To Strengthen Glyphosate Review

On September 22, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new interagency Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The MOU is intended to strengthen scientific coordination and expand the evidence available to EPA’s ongoing registration review of glyphosate under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

EPA Action

Under the MOU, EPA and HHS will exchange scientific information, identify research gaps, and expand research into potential human health effects. EPA retains sole authority for registration decisions under FIFRA. The MOU creates no new authorities, and EPA retains sole review responsibility for registration decisions under FIFRA. The agreement allows HHS to contribute important research capacity and scientific knowledge that EPA will weigh at its discretion.

HHS and EPA will establish a joint technical working group that brings together experts from EPA, including the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) and the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions (OASES), and HHS components, including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Toxicology Program (NTP), National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The working group plans to identify priority scientific questions, coordinate research and information-sharing, and align its work with EPA’s registration review schedule.

The EPA and HHS partnership will focus on key areas where additional research and scientific coordination can strengthen the evidence base available to EPA, including the toxicology (including cancer) of glyphosate formulations and surfactants, occupational epidemiology, human exposure and biomonitoring, and dietary exposure. The MOU is intended to establish the framework to exchange scientific information, identify outstanding research questions, coordinate additional research, and bring HHS expertise and data to EPA’s review.

EPA’s updated human health risk assessment, that is expected to be published by theend of 2026, will address exposure to glyphosate-based formulations, dietary exposure, including from preharvest applications, and occupational exposure, and will evaluate the available cancer, genotoxicity, reproductive, and developmental evidence. FIFRA and the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) require EPA to determine that there is a reasonable certainty of no harm from aggregate dietary exposure, with particular attention to infants and children. The joint technical working group formed under the MOU will help EPA identify consequential data gaps that may warrant additional research, testing, or monitoring, including emerging areas such as the microbiome. HHS and EPA intend, consistent with applicable law, to make appropriate working group materials available on a rolling basis in EPA’s Glyphosate Registration Review docket as they are finalized.

Commentary

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide registered by EPA for use on many crops and in non-crop sites such as forests, rights-of-way, pasture and rangeland, recreational and wildlife-management areas, and residential settings. As part of its registration review, EPA will systematically evaluate relevant peer-reviewed research published since its 2017 human health risk assessment and plans to provide transparency on how it evaluates that evidence. EPA will screen the studies against the same criteria as it applies to any other published literature and will address in the registration review record those it determines to be relevant and of sufficient quality. EPA is currently soliciting comments on the completeness of its glyphosate open literature search, as discussed in Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.’s “EPA Releases Glyphosate Human Health Open Literature Search Document for Public Comment” blog. EPA has extended the due date for comments to November 23, 2026.

There is continued debate on the cancer-causing effects of glyphosate, with virtually all global authoritative bodies having determined it causes no such effect and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and detractors claiming otherwise. In EPA’s 2017 human health risk assessment, EPA did not identify risks of concern with glyphosate uses, including for cancer from dietary and drinking water exposure or residential exposure.

EPA is in the process of updating the human health risk assessment to incorporate more recent, scientifically relevant published literature (including epidemiological data), which will inform EPA’s decision on these issues moving forward. EPA convened in 2016 an independent scientific review panel and solicited stakeholder input on scientific issues related to the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate at that time. The conclusions of the scientific review panel can be found in EPA’s Scientific Advisory Panel Report for Glyphosate. Since EPA is the sole regulatory authority for registration decisions under FIFRA, it is unclear if the MOU with HHS will influence EPA’s previous risk assessment conclusions, including cancer, supporting the currently registered uses of glyphosate. The coordination with HHS might add confidence about EPA’s glyphosate assessments for some critics of past EPA glyphosate risk assessments. If glyphosate data gaps are identified because of the MOU, and HHS conducts research to fill the gaps, any relevant scientifically peer-reviewed data may not be available in time to inform EPA’s human health risk assessment for glyphosate that is currently scheduled for release by the end of 2026.

EPA states that it intends to hold a public webinar in early 2027 to provide an overview of the updated human health risk assessment and its conclusions. More information on glyphosate can also be found at EPA’s web page on glyphosate.