Monsanto Sues to Keep Glyphosate off California list of Carcinogens
No surprise that the company who has been destroying lives since 1901 – Monsanto Co of St Louis- filed a lawsuit in California seeking to prevent glyphosate, the main ingredient in its Roundup herbicide, from being added to the state’s list of known carcinogens.
Monsanto said it filed the suit against the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and the agency’s acting director, Lauren Zeise, in California state court.
CA law requires the state to keep a list of cancer-causing chemicals, like glyphosate (and Roundup) to inform residents of their risks which can be deadly.
OEHHA said in September that it planned to add glyphosate to the list after the (WHO) World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified it as a Group B carcinogen (that it “likely causes cancer”) last March.
Monsanto has disputed this, claiming decades of studies (were they paid off some wonder?) deeming glyphosate safe, including a 2007 study by OEHHA that concluded the chemical was unlikely to cause cancer (but no guarantees on this stuff used around the US like it’s water)
Phil Miller, Monsanto’s vice president of regulatory affairs spouted off the usual propaganda on how safe the known carcinogen is, but that’s no surprise to us. He has to earn his large paycheck.
From Reuters:
Monsanto’s lawsuit argues that listing glyphosate under Proposition 65, as the state’s law is known, based on IARC’s classification cedes regulatory authority to an “unelected, undemocratic, unaccountable, and foreign body” that is not subject to oversight by any state or federal entity.
Monsanto argues that the lack of oversight violates the company’s right to procedural due process under California and U.S. law.
A listing would also require Monsanto and others offering products containing glyphosate to provide a “clear and reasonable warning” to consumers that the chemical is known to cause cancer, damaging Monsanto’s reputation and violating its First Amendment rights, the company said.
OEHHA did not comment, as they apparently have not seen the newly filed lawsuit.
The carcinogen known as Roundup is used by farmers around the world, making the globally hated company Monsanto a cool $4.8 billion in fiscal 2015 revenue. Over 90% of corn and soy is GMO and uses the harmful product known as Roundup. Questions from thousands of scientists, doctors, environmentalists and other expert critics about the safety of the carcinogen have been asked for years. While countless of other countries ban or label GMOs, the US (land of the free) hasn’t done either.
Since IARC’s classification of glyphosate as probably causing cancer last year, Monsanto has been named in numerous lawsuits accusing the company of knowing of the dangers of glyphosate for decades, yet refusing to do nothing as they continue their 100 year plus path of destruction and devastation.
Sources Cancer.org
Sources: Reuters
