Bayer is fighting back against the mountains of litigation in which the weedkiller Roundup has been blamed for causing cancer in thousands of users.
On July 9, attorneys representing the company went to federal court in California in an attempt to convince a judge to separate almost 4,000 lawsuits in which plaintiffs say glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to Reuters.
The move to get the cases separated comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that plaintiffs cannot file suit against Bayer because the product’s label did not include a warning that glyphosate could pose a cancer risk, because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency already had decided such a warning was not necessary.
To date, Bayer has settled thousands of lawsuits for a total of about $11 billion. According to published reports, numerous suits have been filed by golf course greenkeepers, as well as school grounds workers and even a PGA professional.
Glyphosate has been labeled as a possible carcinogen by the World Health Organization, a claim the EPA refutes. Since acquiring Monsanto – the maker of Roundup – in 2018, Bayer has settled thousands of lawsuits for a total of about $11 billion. According to published reports, numerous suits have been filed by golf course greenkeepers, as well as school grounds workers and even a PGA professional.
In other news, agriculture and professional market users of glyphosate-based weedkillers might soon be paying higher prices. Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer is asking the U.S. government to impose a tariff on China for Chinese-made glyphosate. The U.S. and China are the primary producers of Roundup’s active ingredient, with the latter responsible for producing as much as 75 percent of the world’s supply. Bayer is complaining that Chinese-made glyphosate is being dumped in the U.S. and at rock-bottom prices.
Weedkiller with glyphosate no longer is available to the U.S. consumer market, but remains available for users in the professional and agriculture markets.
