California
clears hurdle for cancer warning label on Roundup
January 27, 2017 by
Scott Smith
Containers of Roundup,
left, a weed killer is seen on a shelf with other products for sale at a
hardware store in Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017.
A battle over the
main ingredient in Roundup, the popular weed killer sprayed by …more
California can require
Monsanto to label its popular weed-killer Roundup as a possible cancer threat
despite an insistence from the chemical giant that it poses no risk to people,
a judge tentatively ruled Friday.
California would be the
first state to order such labeling if it carries out the proposal.
Monsanto had sued the
nation's leading agricultural state, saying California officials illegally
based their decision for carrying the warnings on an international health
organization based in France.
Monsanto attorney
Trenton Norris argued in court Friday that the labels would have immediate
financial consequences for the company. He said many consumers would see the
labels and stop buying Roundup.
"It will absolutely
be used in ways that will harm Monsanto," he said.
After the hearing, the
firm said in a statement that it will challenge the tentative ruling.
Critics take issue with
Roundup's main ingredient, glyphosate, which has no color or smell. Monsanto
introduced it in 1974 as an effective way of killing weeds while leaving crops
and plants intact.
It's sold in more than
160 countries, and farmers in California use it on 250 types of crops.
The chemical is not
restricted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which says it has
"low toxicity" and recommends people avoid entering a field for 12
hours after it has been applied.
But the International
Agency for Research on Cancer, a Lyon, France-based branch of the U.N. World
Health Organization, classified the chemical as a "probable human
carcinogen."
Shortly afterward, the
most populated U.S. state took its first step in 2015 to require the warning
labels.
St. Louis-based Monsanto
contends that California is delegating its authority to an unelected foreign
body with no accountability to U.S. or state officials in violation of the
California Constitution.
Attorneys for California
consider the International Agency for Research on Cancer the "gold
standard" for identifying carcinogens, and they rely on its findings along
with several states, the federal government and other countries, court papers
say.
Fresno County Superior
Court Judge Kristi Kapetan still must issue a formal decision, which she said
would come soon.
California regulators
are waiting for the formal ruling before moving forward with the warnings, said
Sam Delson, a spokesman for the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment.
Once a chemical is added
to a list of probable carcinogens, the manufacturer has a year before it must
attach the label, he said.
Teri McCall believes a
warning would have saved her husband, Jack, who toted a backpack of Roundup for
more than 30 years to spray weeds on their 20-acre avocado and apple farm. He
died of cancer in late 2015.
"I just don't think
my husband would have taken that risk if he had known," said Teri McCall,
one of dozens nationwide who are suing Monsanto, claiming the chemical gave
them or a loved one cancer.
But farmer Paul
Betancourt, who has been using Roundup for more than three decades on his
almond and cotton crops, says he does not know anyone who has gotten sick from
it.
"You've got to
treat it with a level of respect, like anything else," he said.
"Gasoline will cause cancer if you bathe in the stuff."
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