Hundreds of plaintiffs around the country are suing agricultural products giant Monsanto, claiming that their widely-used weed-killing product “Roundup”—advertised as completely safe—has actually been causing cancer.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (which placed glyphosate in its Category 2A as a probable carcinogen), as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the active ingredient in Roundup products—glyphosate—is a known carcinogen.
Glyphosate
Glyphosate is known as a “non-selective herbicide,” meaning that it kills indiscriminately so long as an organism produces 5-enolpyruvyl shikimic acid-3-phosphate synthase (also known as EPSP synthase)—a specific enzyme. Since glyphosate is absorbed into the structure of the plant and root system, it cannot be washed off.
Each year, for nearly 40 years, approximately 250 million pounds of glyphosate have been sprayed on crops, lawns, parks, golf courses, and nurseries; increasingly driven by the proliferation of genetically-engineered crops who have grown resistant to glyphosate. This includes an estimated 90 percent of soybean fields and 70 percent of corn and cotton crops. Lab tests have shown trace amounts of the chemical in many processed foods made with Roundup resistant grains.
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Those Affected
It isn’t just gardeners and homeowners who are concerned about cancer from the product—many farmers and those who worked in the plants that produced the chemicals for Roundup are concerned that Roundup could be killing them. Many of them now have health issues including Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Chronic Lymphoma Leukemia; with their own doctors pointing out the link between these cancers and overexposure to herbicides and pesticides. One-thousand or so of these farmers are now suing Monsanto in a class-action lawsuit.
Actions to Ban
The International Agency for Research on Cancer released its report indicating that glyphosate was carcinogenic in 2015. Since then, countries including France, Colombia, and Sri Lanka have banned the chemical’s use. Although the United States as a whole has not yet banned the chemical, various jurisdictions have taken their own actions to protect consumers; California, for example, listed glyphosate as an agent known to cause cancer. In addition, various counties and communities within New Mexico have contemplated placing a ban on the herbicide.
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U.S. Regulation of Roundup
Herbicides such as roundup are regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which requires that they be registered with the EPA before they are distributed, sold, or used. While the EPA does conduct certain tests to find out if products are toxic to people and/or the environment, registration is by no means a guarantee that a product is automatically safe.
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Nature if the Claims against Roundup
Anyone injured by a product like Roundup can file an action for damages suffered as a direct and proximate result of Monsanto’s negligent and wrongful conduct in connection with the design, development, manufacture, testing, packaging, promoting, marketing, advertising, distribution, labeling, and/or sale of the Roundup, containing the active ingredient glyphosate, maintaining that Roundup and/or glyphosate is defective, dangerous to human health, unfit, and unsuitable to be marketed and sold in commerce, and lacked proper warnings and directions regarding the dangers associated with its use.
Those Roundup products that are the target of the lawsuits include, but are not limited to:
- Roundup Concentrate Poison Ivy and Tough Brush Killer
- Roundup Custom Herbicide
- Roundup D-Pak herbicide
- Roundup Dry Concentrate
- Roundup Export Herbicide
- Roundup Fence & Hard Edger 1
- Roundup Garden Foam Weed & Grass Killer
- Roundup Grass and Weed Killer
- Roundup Herbicide
- Roundup Original 2k herbicide
- Roundup Original II Herbicide
- Roundup Pro Concentrate
- Roundup Pro-dry Herbicide
- Roundup Pro-max
- Roundup Quikstik Grass and Weed Killer
- Roundup Quikpro Herbicide
- Roundup Weed & Grass Killer Concentrate
- Roundup Weed & Grass Killer Super Concentrate
- Roundup Ready-to-Use Extended Control Weed & Grass Killer 1 Plus Weed Preventer
- Roundup Ready-to-Use Weed & Grass Killer
- Roundup Ready-to-Use Weed and Grass Killer 2
- Roundup Ultra Dry, Roundup Ultra Herbicide
- Roundup ULTRA MAX
- Roundup VM Herbicide
- Roundup Weed & Grass Killer Concentrate
- Roundup Weed & Grass Killer Concentrate Plus
- Roundup Weed & Grass killer Ready-to-Use Plus
- Roundup Weed & Grass Killer Super Concentrate
- Roundup Weed & Grass Killer 1 Ready-to-Use
- Roundup WSD Water Soluble Dry Herbicide Deploy Dry Herbicide
Misleading Advertising
Individuals aren’t the only ones who’ve pursued Monsanto over glyphosate: In 1996, New York attorney general filed a lawsuit against the company for false and misleading advertising of glyphosate-based products, including herbicides like Roundup. The company had labeled the product as “safer than table salt” and “practically non-toxic.” As a result, the company agreed to modify its advertising in the state of New York alone.
Many now feel that it should be a routine practice for the company to have to place warnings on all bottles of Roundup, regardless of what state the product occurs in.
The Fight with Monsanto
Although it denies the link between the chemical and cancer, according to the complaints filed, Monsanto has been aware of its deadly effects for years.
The company is expected to fight long and hard against the lawsuits, given the billions of dollars in profits that the many Roundup products make for them; in fact, Monsanto still touts the herbicide as the “safest known to agriculture.”
Due to the expected level of resources Monsanto will presumably sink into fighting these claims, those whose health has been negatively affected by a Roundup product should work with experienced tort/personal injury/environmental hazard attorneys in bringing any claims against the company.
You have every right to expect that products you use – including pesticides and herbicides – are safe for use. Unfortunately, many of the products that we are exposed to on a daily basis end up causing harm/or death to ourselves and/or our loved ones.
If you or a loved one that there has been an injury or a death due to a Roundup product, contact the Roger Ghai Law Offices today. As a leading Marietta faulty product attorney, Roger Ghai has the skills and experience to provide you with the aggressive representation you need to obtain the compensation necessary to begin to recover.
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