Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) has taken a Californian environmental health agency to court for its plans to add the chemical in herbicide Roundup to a list of carcinogens.

In September last year, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) proposed adding glyphosate to a list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer.

The agency's move followed a determination from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) the chemical was "probably carcinogenic".

But in a lawsuit with the Fresno County Court, Monsanto has sought an injunction against the OEHHA to prevent it from following through with the proposal.

"Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide that is highly effective in controlling weeds in agricultural, residential, aquatic, and other settings," Monsanto said in the court documents.

"Numerous regulatory agencies and independent scientists have evaluated glyphosate over the course of its more than forty years of use and have concluded that glyphosate does not present a carcinogenic risk to humans."

The most recent evaluation comes from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which in November determined glyphosate was unlikely to be a carcinogenic hazard.

Monsanto argues the OEHHA exclusively relied on the World Health Organization (WHO) affiliated IARC for its proposal, allowing the group to "overrule" the office's own previous conclusion that glyphosate was "unlikely to pose a cancer hazard to humans".

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