Do we trust the EPA to protect us? Have we seen the EPA yield to industry over citizens’ health concerns? Do we want Roundup leeching into the Santa Fe River? The answers are simple and are “no” and “yes” and “no.”
Read the original article here at this link at Yahoo Finance .
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
U.S. EPA reaffirms that glyphosate does not cause cancer
Reuters January 30, 2020
By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it finished a regulatory review that found glyphosate, the most widely used weed killer in the United States, is not a carcinogen.
The conclusion reaffirms the agency’s stance on glyphosate, the key ingredient in Bayer AG’s <BAYGn.DE> Roundup, despite judgements by U.S. juries that have found that use of the weedkiller was responsible for plaintiffs’ cancer in some trials.
“EPA has concluded that there are no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used according to the label and that it is not a carcinogen,” the agency said in a statement.
The EPA judgement could help bolster the case for Bayer as it faces thousands more lawsuits from Roundup users who allege it caused their cancer.
Bayer, which bought Roundup maker Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018, welcomed the findings. The company has maintained glyphosate and Roundup are safe and not carcinogenic.
Farmers spray glyphosate on fields of soybeans and other crops. Roundup is also used on lawns, golf courses and elsewhere.
“Glyphosate-based herbicides are one of the most thoroughly studied products of their kind, which is a major reason why farmers around the world continue to rely on these products,” said Liam Condon, Bayer’s global president for crop science.
In 2015, the World Health Organization’s cancer arm classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Bayer said last Friday it reached an agreement with plaintiffs’ lawyers to postpone a Missouri jury trial over allegations Roundup causes cancer to provide time for negotiations to settle the litigation.
Three consecutive juries previously found Bayer liable for causing cancer with damages of tens of millions of dollars awarded to each plaintiff. The company is appealing those verdicts….
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
