Lawsuits Mounting Against Monsanto over Alleged Cancer-causing Ingredients

[PatSeg]

Lawsuits Mounting Against Monsanto Over Alleged Cancer-causing Ingredients in Roundup

<Several law firms in Illinois are mounting claims against a multinational agrochemical manufacturer, alleging one of the components in its herbicide product causes cancer.

In what could become class-actions against Monsanto Co., several law firms are banding together to find clients who allegedly have been affected by the company’s Roundup product, which they claim has caused cancer in several consumers.

Two such cases were recently filed in federal court in East St. Louis.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, was declared by the World Health Organization earlier this year as a probable carcinogen to humans. Following the organization’s announcement, several lawsuits have popped up declaring that Monsanto’s Roundup was the reason for the plaintiffs’ cancer.>

http://madisonrecord.com/stories/510974427-lawsuits-mounting-against-monsanto-over-alleged-cancer-causing-ingredients-in-roundup

Monsanto insists that glyphosate is safe and that the World Health Organization is mistaken.

[womanofthehills]

1. EPA report favorable to glyphosate herbicide mysteriously disappears- House investigates why

US House of Representatives Committee is launching an investigation - asking EPA for communications & documents from Jan 2015 to present.

The Environmental Protection Agency findings posted last month were welcome news for the herbicide industry: Glyphosate, a key ingredient in popular weed killers such as Roundup, was unlikely to cause cancer.

Days later, however, the final report of the Cancer Assessment Review Committee was removed from the EPA website. It hasn’t been seen since.

What happened to the report, and whether the EPA pulled it under political pressure from anti-industry forces, has become a hot topic within the industry as well as the subject of an investigation by the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Rep. Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who chairs the committee, has fired off a letter demanding that four EPA officials involved in the glyphosate analysis take part in transcribed interviews. Last month, he asked the EPA for documents related to the report, which he says he has not received.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/8/epas-glyphosate-report-favorable-to-herbicide-disa/

[PatSeg]

2. Whoa

Maybe that old revolving door is broken.

Oh, we so need a Democratic majority in the House and senate.

[PatSeg]

3. You know

Monsanto threads have been very quiet lately. I think Trump has upstaged everything.

[LeftyMom]

4. Nothing says reliable science reporting like the Moonie Times.

[womanofthehills]

5. It's a fact posted on many sites

A House committee is looking into what's going on with the EPA and their glyphosate report. What does that have to do with science?

[LeftyMom]

6. So post one of them!

[womanofthehills]

7. EPA takes offline report that says glyphosate not likely carcinogenic

The 86-page report, seen by Reuters and published on Friday on the regulations.gov website that the EPA manages, was from the EPA's cancer assessment review committee (CARC). It found that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the world's mostly widely used weedkiller, was "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans."

The EPA took down the report and other documents on Monday afternoon, saying it did so "because our assessment is not final," in an emailed statement to Reuters. The agency said the documents were "preliminary" and that they were published "inadvertently."

But a covering memo that was part of the documents seen by Reuters described the report as the committee's "final Cancer Assessment Document." "FINAL" was printed on each page of the report, which was dated Oct. 1, 2015.

The EPA declined to comment on whether the report, or the 13 other documents that were also published and subsequently taken down on Monday, indicate whether the agency ultimately will conclude that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-glyphosate-epa-idUSKCN0XU01K

[PatSeg]

9. Judge rules against Monsanto

A former coffee farmer who says Monsanto's widely used Roundup herbicide caused her cancer scored a win last week when a federal judge rejected the company's request to dismiss the case. Christine Sheppard was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2003, seven years after she started using Roundup at her coffee farm in Hawaii, Courthouse News reports. Her lawsuit, like one filed by three cancer-stricken farmers in Nebraska, accuses Monsanto of falsely claiming that glyphosate, the herbicide's active ingredient, was safe. The World Health Organization published a study last year that concluded glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans."

http://www.newser.com/story/227533/judge-rules-against-monsanto-in-cancer-lawsuit.html


Sometimes, it seems that when someone has no cogent response to an article, they just object to the news source, which really has nothing to do with the lawsuits involved.

[womanofthehills]

8. Unapproved GMO wheat plants found growing in Washington State - another legal problem for Monsanto

The discovery not only raises concerns over GMO contamination, but could be another legal headache for the agrochemical giant.

Monsanto's experimental genetically engineered wheat has been found growing in a field in Washington state, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed last week.GMO wheat contamination is somewhat of a sore subject for Monsanto. In 2014, the agritech giant paid $2.4 million to settle a lawsuit filed by U.S. wheat farmers over the GMO wheat scare in Oregon. Last year, the company paid another $350,000 to farmers in seven states over the same issue.

GMO wheat is not allowed to be grown anywhere in the world. Monsanto has had to pay millions to settle lawsuits over GMO wheat scares in Oregon.

http://www.alternet.org/food/monsantos-unapproved-gmo-wheat-found-growing-washington-state

[PatSeg]

14. I just found this test mentioned in an article

about Roundup and antibiotic resistant bacteria (not cancer related) and I wonder if this could explain why we've seen so many outbreaks of E coli and salmonella in recent years. I remember when that was a relatively rare occurrence.

To whit, all three of Monsanto’s trademarked chemicals were tested on E. coli (which causes more bacterial infections than almost any other type), and Salmonella bacteria with one of five commonly prescribed antibiotics: Ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, kanamicin, and tetracycline.

Even very low levels of herbicides induced antibiotic resistance with these bacteria – and before the antibiotics even had enough time to kill the bacteria off.

http://naturalsociety.com/how-monsantos-glyphosate-is-generating-deadly-antibiotic-resistance/

This could be a blueprint for an epidemic of infectious diseases.

[NuclearDem]

10. Good Lord, enough with misrepresenting the IARC classification.

Saying something "probably causes cancer" means it has the potential given the right amount of exposure and particular set of circumstances to cause cancer in humans.

Since you're so deathly concerned about 2A classifications, I imagine you refuse to eat apples as well--they're classified as 2A due to the natural formaldehyde in them. The reason you're probably not freaked out about it is because the dose of formaldehyde in a single apple is not even remotely likely to cause cancer. If you ate nothing but apples all day every day, that would be a different story.

Same with bananas, eggs, working third shift and working at Great Clips.

[womanofthehills]

12. IARC - probably causing cancer in humans because it IS CAUSING CANCER in lab rats

Non Hodgkins Lymphoma is the main cancer it is causing.

[NuclearDem]

15. How many times are you guys going to push Seralini's joke of a "study"?

The fact you choose to obsessively support one horrifically-flawed experiment rife with conflicts of interest and unethical behavior over the hundreds without these problems puts you guys in league with anti-vaxxers and creationists as far as scientific ignorance is concerned.

[Bonx]

11. some more

“The contrived claims that glyphosate causes cancer are based on the erroneous conclusions of a French-based, non-governmental agency of the World Health Organization,” Scott Partridge, vice president of global strategy at Monsanto, told the Record.

“IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) and its findings have been thoroughly discredited and rejected by the rigorous scientific research of governmental authorities around the world. In fact, those respected regulatory agencies, including the U.S. EPA, the European Food Safety Authority and the relevant bodies in Germany, Japan, Australia and Canada, have all come to the exact opposite conclusion: glyphosate is safe. Even the World Health Organization has now issued a new report that states glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through diet, contradicting the IARC report.”

[womanofthehills]

13. Actually, the WHO has many different divisions and I will go with the cancer research one

The IARC stands by its claim that glyphosate causes cancer. Other divisions with connections to Monsanto are the ones who disagree and again there is big money involved.

UN/WHO panel in conflict of interest row over glyphosate cancer risk

Tuesday 17 May 2016 14.09

A UN panel that on Tuesday ruled that glyphosate was probably not carcinogenic to humans has now become embroiled in a bitter row about potential conflicts of interests. It has emerged that an institute co-run by the chairman of the UN’s joint meeting on pesticide residues (JMPR) received a six-figure donation from Monsanto, which uses the substance as a core ingredient in its bestselling Roundup weedkiller.

Professor Alan Boobis, who chaired the UN’s joint FAO/WHO meeting on glyphosate, also works as the vice-president of the International Life Science Institute (ILSI) Europe. The co-chair of the sessions was Professor Angelo Moretto, a board member of ILSI’s Health and Environmental Services Institute, and of its Risk21 steering group too, which Boobis also co-chairs.

In 2012, the ILSI group took a $500,000 (£344,234) donation from Monsanto and a $528,500 donation from the industry group Croplife International, which represents Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta and others, according to documents obtained by the US right to know campaign.