A lawsuit has been filed against Monsanto in California on behalf of state residents who developed cancer linked to RoundUp following exposure.
It follows a lawsuit filed last week by Monsanto aimed at blocking California from protecting state residents by listing glyphosate – the main ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer RoundUp – as a known carcinogen.
“Monsanto’s misinformation campaign is costing lives,” said Michael Miller, attorney for the Miller Firm, which filed against Monsanto Thursday on behalf of California residents Brenda and James Huerta. “Brenda and James’ lawsuit will force Monsanto to face the human consequences of their lies.”
California has the highest level of glyphosate usage – some counties use over 2 million pounds of glyphosate each year – and the most cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the cancer linked to RoundUp, in the United States.
Brenda Huerta and her husband James lived on a commercial sod farm in Riverside County for several years, which exposed them to RoundUp. Brenda was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013.
The World Health Organization has concluded that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen.”
Miller said Monsanto has attempted to hide the adverse affects of RoundUp:
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had considered RoundUp a “possible carcinogen” in the 1980s but following input from Monsanto, dropped that classification, although the reviewing committee was split and one member refused to sign.
- Reports from the EPA secured under the Freedom of Information Act show that Monsanto was aware of the link between RoundUp and cancer more 30 years ago. However, it was able to convince the EPA to ignore Monsanto’s early studies and rely almost entirely on later herbicide industry-funded studies where the link was less clear.
- Like other U.S. regulatory agencies, the EPA didn’t perform its own testing on RoundUp but relied on the manufacturer, and didn’t review epidemiological studies.
- Monsanto has marketed RoundUp as “practically non-toxic” to humans. Sales of the product have skyrocketed over the years, due also in part to the marketing of “RoundUp-ready” crops, genetically engineered by Monsanto to be resistant to RoundUp application.
Meanwhile, Miller said farm workers and others exposed to the chemical such as Brenda Huerta continue to be diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
