A federal judge in the United States has ruled that the state of California may not require the chemical company Bayer to place a warning on the packaging of the weed killer Roundup stating that glyphosate causes cancer.
Although a subdivision of the World Health Organization (WHO) classified glyphosate in 2015 as "probably carcinogenic," the U.S. judge said that there are several other organizations that "have concluded there is insufficient or no evidence that glyphosate causes cancer."
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment had labeled glyphosate three years ago as a chemical known to cause cancer, but Bayer's Monsanto unit challenged that decision and has now won on appeal.
The court ruling is a victory for Bayer, which acquired the French company Monsanto two years ago and has since faced tens of thousands of lawsuits in the United States over Roundup. Bayer suffered substantial losses in those earlier trials in the U.S., but many of the mass damage awards were reduced.
Bayer, which acquired Roundup through the $63 billion purchase of Monsanto in 2018, is still facing lawsuits from more than 52,500 U.S. Roundup users, and juries in three trials have already ordered the company to pay billions because the product is claimed to have caused cancer.
Bayer, which has appealed the verdicts, denies the allegations and stresses that glyphosate does not cause cancer and is safe. The company is seeking an out-of-court settlement of the lawsuit, which analysts suggest could lead to an agreement of $10 billion.
With the EU approval for glyphosate expiring in December 2022, the battle over the future of the controversial pesticide has also resumed there. The European Commission has already appointed four evaluating countries that jointly act as 'rapporteurs' for the next assessment of glyphosate. This group consists of France, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
The technical dossier supporting the application, containing scientific studies and literature data, was formally submitted this month. The dossier submitted by the companies will be presented by the assessment group to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). EFSA will submit its conclusions to the European Commission, which will propose whether or not to reapprove glyphosate. Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides in European agriculture and the world's most used herbicide.