Supreme Court blocks thousands of suits that claim Roundup weed-killer causes cancer

A new Supreme Court ruling will restrict "one the largest waves of product liability lawsuits in the history of the nation."

According to a dispatch by Justin Jouvenal in today's editions of The Washington Post, the court specifically blocked "thousands of suits claiming Roundup causes cancer."

The court, in a 7-2 decision (liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch voted against), ruled that "Monsanto was not required to offer a warning because the Environmental Protection Agency holds that Roundup's active ingredient, glyphosate, is not a cancer risk," the story says.

The EPA finding, however, contrasts with another by the World Health Organization (WHO), which, Jouvenal's piece says, "found glyphosate was 'probably carcinogenic to humans' after reviewing available research on the chemical. In particular, the agency found a likely link between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and  glyphosate."

In  light of that report, some countries have banned the weed-killer.

Paul D. Clement

Paul D. Clement, attorney for Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, had argued before the Supreme Court that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which regulates the sale and marketing of pesticides and herbicides, "preempts state-court claims" that the company had to warn cancer victims of alleged dangers posed by Roundup because the EPA ruled it was safe.

According to the Post story, the court decision "turned on a technical legal question, but one with enormous stakes. On the line are billions of dollars, the fate of tens of thousands  of lawsuits filed by cancer victims, and the future of an herbicide farmers say is crucial to the nation's food supply but health groups warn is a danger."

Litigation, the article notes, had "prompted Monsanto to remove glyphosate-based Roundup from the consumer market, but it is still available to farmers and commercial users."

More information on lawsuits and disease can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, aVitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.