Court hears suit over herbicide's health risk

Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture appeared in court for a hearing on Monday, after three Beijing environmentalists sued to force it to release safety reports on a popular weed killer.

A decision is pending.

The environmentalists, all Beijing residents, sued the ministry in September to force disclosure after an agency of the World Health Organization declared that an active ingredient used in an herbicide known as Roundup－a product of US agrochemical giant Monsanto that is widely used around the world for weed control－likely caused cancer.

Monsanto and others disputed that conclusion, as did a report by the European Food Safety Authority.

Toxicology experiments on Roundup were conducted by Younger Laboratories in the United States in 1985, and the ministry approved the weed killer for commercial use in China in 1988.

The ministry said the test results include proprietary business secrets from Monsanto that should not be released.

Wang Xixin, a professor of governmental affairs and transparency at Peking University, said there is no clear definition of "business secrets" in current rules on the disclosure of information held by the government.

Yang Weidong, a law professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said, "The judicial body should conduct its own review of the technical reports."

Both thought disclosure might be ordered, based on progress made toward transparency in government since 2008.