France has announced a ban on over-the-counter sales of Monsanto's weedkiller Roundup at garden centres after glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, was classified as potentially harmful to human health. French Environment Minister Ségolène Royal told France 3 television on Sunday, “France must be on the offensive with regards to the banning of pesticides”. “I have asked garden centres to stop putting Monsanto’s Roundup on sale” in self-service aisles, she said. Royal did not specify how she would enforce a ban. Glyphosate was introduced by Monsanto in the 1970s under the brand name Roundup and is the world’s most widely sold herbicide used by farmers and amateur gardeners alike. In March, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organisation (WHO), classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”. That prompted calls from public officials, health experts and consumers worldwide for a ban on the pesticide. Some retailers across Europe have already started to remove Roundup from their shelves. German retail giant REWE Group announced in May that its 350 ‘toom Baumarkt DIY’ stores would no longer be selling products containing glyphosate by 30 September 2015 at the latest. In Switzerland, supermarket chains Coop and Migros both have removed glyphosate products from their product range. The French move is part of a wider effort to reduce the country's pesticide use. The French parliament earlier adopted a law which would restrict self-service sales of plant protection products for domestic gardeners from 2018. Sales would be limited to certified vendors, a full ban on pesticides in home gardens would take effect from 2022. France, the EU’s largest agricultural producer, had the ambitious goal of cutting pesticide use by half from 2008 to 2018. In late January, however, French Minister of Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll, prolonged the deadline to 2025. (ab)