Havering residents are calling on the council to use a "safe non-chemical alternative" to glyphosate. - Credit: PA A group of Havering residents has set up a petition calling for the use of a controversial pesticide chemical to be halted in the borough. The petition asks Havering Council to find an alternative weed killer to glyphosate, which is the subject of a long-running controversy over its safety for animals and humans. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) ruled glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic”, but last year, the United States Environmental Protection Agency said the chemical posed "no risks of concern to human health".