Agribusiness giant Monsanto Corporation has sued California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to block the agency from adding glyphosate—the main ingredient in its herbicide Roundup—to the list of chemicals known to cause cancer.
The list of carcinogenic chemicals is authorized under California’s Proposition 65, a 1986 law to keep chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm out of the state’s drinking-water supply, Law360 reports. Monsanto said the listing was “virtually automatic” after International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic. Under Prop. 65, a business must post a warning when its operations or products will expose people to any of the chemicals on the list.
Monsanto claims it was denied due process, that “OEHHA effectively elevated the determination of an ad hoc committee of an unelected, foreign body, which answers to no United States official (let alone any California state official), over the conclusions of its own scientific experts.” Phil Miller, Monsanto’s vice president for regulatory affairs, said OEHHA’s proposed listing is “contrary to science.” He said IARC’s designation is “erroneous, non-transparent and based on selectively interpreted data,” according to Law360.
Monsanto claims that the portion of the California Labor Code that cites IARC findings as a basis for Prop. 65 inclusion violates the California and U.S. constitutions. Monsanto told the court that during the 40 years Roundup has been in use, regulators and scientists who have not found an associated cancer risk. The OEHHA itself was one of the evaluators. The agency concluded in1997 and again in 2007 that glyphosate is not likely to pose a significant cancer risk to humans, Law360 reports.
Roundup is widely used commercially on crops such as corn and soybeans and also widely used use by landscapers and home gardeners. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that in 2007 farmers in the U.S. used about 185 million pounds of glyphosate, double the amount used six years earlier.
In 2015, the IARC deemed glyphosate “probably carcinogenic to humans,” the New York Times reported. The agency based its determination on studies of glyphosate exposure in the United States, Canada, and Sweden since 2001. “Probably carcinogenic” is more difficult to refute than the lesser designation “possibly carcinogenic.”
Glyphosate has been linked to the cancers leukemia (multiple myeloma, myeloma), and lymphoma (non-Hodgkin’s, Hodgkin’s), and also to Parkinson’s disease. In addition, glyphosate is associated with health problems including respiratory distress, impaired consciousness, pulmonary edema, arrhythmias, and renal failure, according to a study published in Toxicology Review in 2004. People exposed to glyphosate have also experienced blurred vision, coma, confusion, dizziness, hand tremors, headaches, insomnia, loss of appetite, stomach cramps, diarrhea, and loss of coordination.
After the IARC designated glyphosate a probable human carcinogen, France’s ecology minister, Segolene Royal, banned the sale of Roundup at garden centers. In a town in Argentina’s Entre Rios province, residents are demanding action on the high cancer death rates. They say that nearly half the deaths there in recent years have been cancer deaths. The national cancer death rate is 18 percent. Residents say the heavy use of Roundup on rice and soybean crops is responsible for the high cancer death rate.
Lawsuits filed against Monsanto allege Roundup caused the cancers of a Hawaiian farmer and a California field worker. Both suits mention the IARC probable carcinogen classification in support of the claims. Monsanto is seeking to have both cases dismissed, Law360 reports.
from Parker Waichman http://www.yourlawyer.com/blog/monsanto-sues-california-environmental-agency-to-block-probably-carcinogenic-designation-for-roundup/
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