California labels Monsanto’s Roundup as cancer causing

California labels Monsanto’s Roundup as cancer causing. California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) announced this week that Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Company’s blockbuster Roundup weed killer, will be added to California’s list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7.

Monsanto denies any cancer link with its glyphosate products and stated that it will fight against the designation, required under a California state law known as Proposition 65. Monsanto derides the decision as “unwarranted on the basis of science and the law.”

Monsanto under fire over Roundup’s alleged cancer links

Monsanto is an agricultural and chemical company behemoth and is exposed to litigation over glyphosate since the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said in a 2015 ruling that it is “probably carcinogenic.”

Monsanto released “Roundup Ready” crops in the mid-1990s that are designed to live being sprayed with glyphosate, killing the weeds but not the crops.

According to OEHHA, the cancer-causing designation of glyphosate under Proposition 65 will proceed following an unsuccessful attempt by Monsanto to block the listing in trial court and after requests for a stay were denied by a state appellate court and the California’s Supreme Court.

What is the problem with Roundup?

At issue is a decision issued by the IARC in mid-2015, which warned that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic” and linked the use of Roundup to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The findings suggest that agricultural workers, farmers and others who are regularly exposed to Roundup face an increased risk of cancer.

What does Proposition 65 mean to Monsanto’s Roundup?

The listing of glyphosate as a known carcinogen under California’s Proposition 65 would require companies selling the chemical in California to add warning labels to packaging. Warnings would also be required if glyphosate is being sprayed at levels deemed unsafe by regulators. Roundup chemical agricultural users include landscapers, golf courses, orchards, vineyards and farm workers.

Monsanto and other glyphosate producers would have a year from the listing date to re-label products or remove them from store shelves if further legal challenges are lost.

Roundup Lawsuits

All federal Roundup lawsuits have been centralized and consolidated as part of an MDL or multidistrict litigation, before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California.

As of June 15, a hundred federal product liability and personal injury lawsuits have been filed by workers who say they were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer after spraying Roundup. There are more than 1,100 plaintiffs with pending lawsuits in state and federal courts throughout the U.S.

The lymphoma cancer-stricken workers claim that Monsanto failed to provide adequate warnings that long-term use of the glyphosate-based weed killer could substantially increase the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other deadly cancers.

“Billions of pounds of Roundup sprayed throughout the U.S.”

According to a recent U.S. Geological Survey on glyphosate use, it is estimated 2.6 billion pounds of the herbicide has been sprayed on America’s farmland over the past twenty years.

The lawsuits over Roundup allege that plaintiffs may not have succumbed to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or other dangerous cancers if they had been properly warned about the Roundup risks. The farm workers claim had they been properly warned they could have taken safety precautions or other products could have been used to control the growth of weeds.

Dr. Shezad Malik law firm continues to investigate Roundup linked non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma personal injury claims from across the country. If you or a loved suffered from Roundup linked non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using Roundup, contact our office immediately for your free consultation 888-210-9693.
Tags: Cancer, Glyphosate, Herbicide, Monsanto, Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Roundup, Weed Killer