As regular readers of this blog know, we believe that Monsanto’s RoundUp weed killer kills more than weeds. Many medical and public health officials believe it is linked to several deadly cancers such as leukemia, myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Monsanto and its parent company Bayer claim it is as safe as table salt.
In the only jury trials on this issue to date, a San Francisco jury sided with a school groundskeeper and awarded him $289 million after finding the man’s cancer was the probable result of glyphosate exposure. Glyphosate is the active herbicide in RoundUp and Ranger Pro products.
While that battle now heads to the court of appeals, both sides have their PR firms working overtime.
According to Bayer (the new owner of Monsanto’s product line),
“For more than 150 years, Bayer has been on a journey of discovery of inventing and creating products that help people in a growing and changing world… from finding new treatments for diseases, to helping people get well and stay well, and providing farmers
with the tools to grow more healthy, safe and affordable food. Our combination will accelerate this journey of discovery and advance our purpose of Science for a better life.”
“Helping people get well and stay well? Well over 8,000 people have filed suit against Bayer and Monsanto saying they became sick because of exposure to Bayer’s glyphosate weed killer.
The World Health Organization and several countries say there is a link between cancer and glyphosate. At least one jury believed that too after hearing expert testimony on both sides.
Monsanto says that it provides the tools “to grow healthy and safe food. Many medical experts take a different position.
This week the Environment Working Group did their own testing and found more glyphosate in General Mill’s Honey Nut Cheerios than there was vitamin D or B12. (Quaker oatmeal squares cereal had more glyphosate than vitamin A.)
The chairman of Just Label It said, “A weed killer linked to cancer has no place in any food, especially those overwhelmingly eaten by kids.” We certainly agree and think most consumers do as well.
In an effort to win the public relations war, Monsanto has been busy rounding up [no pun intended] farmers. The company helped create and fund the Freedom to Farm initiative.
The initiative’s website says farming is “under threat!” It is sharply critical of the efforts to ban glyphosate, claiming it will harm agriculture and damage the in interests of farmers. Their doom and gloom projections are warning of “a lack of credible alternatives”, arguing that the consequence are farm profits reduced by up to 40 per cent.
Who should we believe? Can we trust Monsanto?
Investigative research suggests that Monsanto knew for decades that PCBs were highly toxic and dangerous yet the company managed to hide those findings for over 40 years. We don’t believe a word spoken by Monsanto / Bayer or their lawyers. Nor did the jurors who heard weeks of testimony in the recent bellwether trial heard in San Francisco. Those jurors concluded that former groundskeeper DeWayne Johnson’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was likely caused by the glyphosate found in Roundup.
MahanyLaw Seeking Monsanto Whistleblowers and Cancer Victims
As noted above, there are already thousands of lawsuits pending against Bayer and Monsanto. If you have leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or myeloma and were a regular user of Round Up or RangerPro, you may be entitled to compensation. We might not ever get an apology from Bayer but we can demand they pay damages.
We are also looking for corporate whistleblowers with inside information about the dangers of glyphosate and how much Monsanto really knows. Just like Monsanto probably hid information about PCBs, we believe the same greed fueled misinformation tactics are still happening today.