Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumCalifornia to list glyphosate as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight
Source: Reuters
HEALTH NEWS | Mon Jun 26, 2017 | 7:42pm EDT
California to list glyphosate as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight
By Karl Plume
Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co's popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7, the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said on Monday.
Monsanto vowed to continue its legal fight against the designation, required under a state law known as Proposition 65, and called the decision "unwarranted on the basis of science and the law."
The listing is the latest legal setback for the seeds and chemicals company, which has faced increasing litigation over glyphosate since the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer said that it is "probably carcinogenic" in a controversial ruling in 2015.
Dicamba, a weed killer designed for use with Monsanto's next generation of biotech crops, is under scrutiny in Arkansas after the state's plant board voted last week to ban the chemical.
OEHHA said the 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 stay were denied by a state appellate court and the California's Supreme Court.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-glyphosate-california-idUSKBN19H2K1
gtar100
(4,192 posts)A true failure of a business if there ever was one. Their "success" relies on careless application of chemicals in our *shared* environment, testing for the purpose of getting approval and not the truth (that eventually does come out), genetic and chemical manipulation of the world's seed resources followed by threats of lawsuits against anyone who doesn't play their game, brute force manipulation of legislation, and even violence where they can get away with it just to keep themselves in the market. They can't seem to make the company work with a model that is both environmentally responsible and humane. They fail at honest, hard work. They may have a lot of money but it's tainted with blood, disease and death.
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)I wouldn't go quite as far as gtar100 and call them evil, but I don't like them much. Their defense of organophosphates has been very sketchy indeed, particularly Diazanon, and their marketing is sleazy as hell.
But the claim that gyyphosphate causes cancer is very thin, and California is ignoring several studies that suggest that it does nothing of the sort; in particular one study which found no link and was ignored because it was "too large to be included in the findings." As much as I dislike Monsanto, I think it has a valid complaint on this one.
NickB79
(19,253 posts)When are they putting a warning label on cans of Coors?
petronius
(26,602 posts)point of sale, and the beverage industry provides the signs.
My understanding in general is that the required warning doesn't have to be a label directly on the package, it just has to be "clear and reasonable." I would imagine that Monsanto could use the sign-posting strategy, if they don't want to change the package labeling (e.g., for non-California sales)...
https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/general-info/proposition-65-plain-language