Francene Lisle grew up in a farming community. She also worked at a plant in West Virginia that produced the chemicals for Monsanto’s Roundup. Oh, and she used Roundup at home, too. But why wouldn’t she have? Monsanto has always maintained it was safe as long as it was used according to directions. 1
However, in March of 2015 Lisle’s regular doctor noticed she had an elevated white blood cell count and when the tests came back, it wasn’t good news. Although she was diagnosed with chronic lymphoma leukemia she had no family history so she started searching for answers. That’s how she learned that glyphosate has been linked to cancer.
“In 2015, the World Health Organization listed glyphosate as a chemical that probably causes cancer. This month, California added glyphosate to a list of potentially cancer-causing chemicals that are required to provide a warning to the public.” 2
For their part, Monsanto CONTINUES to deny that glyphosate causes cancer:
“Glyphosate is not carcinogenic. … California’s sole reason for listing glyphosate under Prop 65 is the fatally flawed classification … which ignored crucial scientific data that undermines its conclusion. We will continue to aggressively challenge this improper decision.” 3
(But let’s not forget that for years tobacco companies said the same thing; they produced plenty of studies showing how safe smoking was and even went before Congress and said tobacco didn’t cause cancer. Their time is coming.)
Lisle isn’t sure if she’ll be alive when the lawsuit against Monsanto makes it to court but she’s not in it to make money. She simply wanted to add her voice to the growing multitude of people demanding justice, “If I can help someone else by just my voice than I don’t care how big the giant is. I’ll go up against him. I’m not intimidated. I don’t have anything to lose.”4
