After a federal judge in California rejected its attempt to settle Roundup litigation, Bayer announced it could potentially stop selling the weedkiller for residential use in the United States.
The German-based company inherited the Roundup litigation after it acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018. Plaintiffs allege it causes cancer.
“I think that was the correct ruling,” said Kansas City attorney Richard Paul. “There is a danger here of not knowing how many people are going to come forward in the future who are diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as a result of their use of Roundup.”
Roundup’s active ingredient is glyphosate. The herbicide is used to kill weeds that have sprouted among crops.
“Glyphosate has reached the end of its usefulness because the weeds that it's designed to kill have largely become tolerant to glyphosate at this point,” Paul told St. Louis Record. “So its efficacy has declined over the years. I think pesticide companies ought to be focused on developing and bringing to market and focusing their sales on safer pesticides.”
Paul represents a paraquat litigant in Missouri. Paraquat is an herbicide that allegedly causes Parkinson’s disease.
“There were certainly some legal rulings that were made in the course of the Roundup litigation that I think will apply equally in the paraquat litigation,” he said. “For example, defendants often raise a defense that the claim is preempted by the federal government's regulation of pesticides. That argument was rejected in the Roundup litigation and I would expect that ruling would carry forward in the Paraquat litigation as well.”
Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer, had attempted to settle the Roundup litigation for $2 billion but U.S. District Court for the Northern District Judge Vince Chhabria denied the offer last week.
“We remain committed to the Roundup brand in the U.S. residential lawn and garden market and will immediately engage with our partners to discuss the appropriate future path, including the future of glyphosate-based products for this market or the opportunities for alternative active ingredients that will continue to meet the needs of consumers, which has been trusted by consumers for decades,” Baumann said in a statement online. “None of these discussions will affect the availability of glyphosate-based products in markets for professional and agricultural users.”
Baumann added that Bayer will be working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to update its label.
“Adding a warning would eliminate the risk,” Paul said. “The litigation was about a failure to warn. Had they warned of this risk on the label, they could have mitigated their liability that way but, as I said, I think there was more to the removal of glyphosate from the market than just the liability. Its declining effectiveness against weeds has a role to play in that as well.”
Bayer asserts Roundup is safe.
“When it comes to safety assessments, glyphosate is among the most extensively tested pesticides on the market,” according to a statement on Bayer’s website. “Evaluations spanning more than 40 years, and the overwhelming conclusion of experts and regulators worldwide, support the safety of glyphosate and that glyphosate does not cause cancer."