With warmer days fast approaching, many are probably thinking about getting gardens, lawns and flower beds in shape.
For some, that means Roundup Weed and Grass Killer, or one of its sister products, will be used to tidy up landscaping and gardens across the country. But that might represent a conundrum for others.
The popular weed killer, found in almost any hardware store or lawn care center, has been the subject of thousands of lawsuits in the United States, many of which concern its key ingredient glyphosate, an herbicide used to kill weeds. Many of those lawsuits now being litigated allege glyphosate causes cancer, something its German manufacturer, Bayer AG, denies.
Glyphosate is not new. It is an herbicide used to kill weeds and has been around since the early 1970s. Besides its domestic use, Roundup is also used in commercial farming.
For the last five years, or so, lawsuits have sprung up across the country over the chemical makeup of Roundup. Recently, Bayer AG agreed to pay $39.5 million to settle lawsuits that alleged its Monsanto unit ran misleading ads about the health risks to both animals and humans, Bloomberg reported March 30.
“As part of the deal, language will be removed from Roundup Weed and Grass Killer’s label saying that glyphosate — the product’s active ingredient — only affects an enzyme found in plants,” Bloomberg reported in the article. “Consumers alleged that the chemical attacks an enzyme found in humans and some animals.”
And that — product labeling — could be the next wave of lawsuits, said Alison Peck, a West Virginia University law professor who has been following the Roundup cases.
Bayer, which acquired Monsanto Co. in 2018, is also trying to settle more than 13,000 lawsuits that allege glyphosate in the weed killer causes cancer. The German company recently lost three such lawsuits in California that resulted in combined damages of
$191 million.
Bloomberg also said Bayer agreed to delay the next round of Roundup trials to provide more time for negotiation.
Peck said the issues surrounding Roundup can go many ways.
“Roundup is used by farmers,” she said. “To a farmer in a spray rig, it may be safe.” But to a groundskeeper, on the other hand, it may not be safe, she said.
“The EPA is looking at studies by the company and others.”
Still, the EPA re-approved glyphosate in January, claiming it is not harmful to humans.
“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 federal agency said on its website. “These findings on human health risk are consistent with the conclusions of science reviews by many other countries and other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency, the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority, the European Food Safety Authority, and the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The agency is requiring additional mitigation measures to help farmers target pesticide sprays to the intended pest and reduce the problem of increasing glyphosate resistance in weeds.”
Europe, meanwhile, has taken steps to regulate the use of the weed killer. Recent reports said Germany will phase out the use of glyphosate because it wipes out the bee population that is needed to pollinate crops. The European Union’s approval period for it expires in 2023.
Austria became the first European Union member to outlaw glyphosate in July 2019. Glyphosate restrictions are also in place in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Italy.
TWEET @41Suzanne
