The Missouri gave initial approval this week to a bill that could protect pesticide manufacturers from some cancer lawsuits.
The debate on the House floor wasn’t split along party lines, however, as several Republicans cautioned against the risk of cancers caused by pesticides.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Dane Diehl, a Republican from Butler, would protect pesticide manufacturers from claims that they failed to warn consumers of possible cancer risks in their products as long as the federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved those products.
Much of the debate focused on a specific pesticide manufacturer: Bayer, the company with U.S. headquarters in St. Louis that purchased Monsanto, the original manufacturer of RoundUp pesticide.
Bayer has pursued similar legislation in other agricultural states like Iowa and Idaho. According to The Associated Press, the company is seeking to stem a tide of lawsuits claiming that Bayer’s products cause cancer.
To date, the company has been embroiled in over 167,000 suits claiming that RoundUp is responsible for causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Some cases have been dismissed, but Bayer has also been forced to pay billions of dollars in restitution for others, according to the Associated Press.
Diehl, a farmer, said he drafted the legislation out of fear that Bayer would be forced to pull RoundUp off of the market. He pointed out that glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, has been regulated by the federal government for decades and that the product is critical for one of Missouri’s largest industries.
Click here to read more stlpr.org
Photo Credit: istock-fotokostic
Categories: Missouri, General