Bayer Pushes Congress to Grant Immunity For Roundup Cancer Lawsuits in Next Farm Bill

Proposed legislation that would enact uniform pesticide labeling may prevent failure to warn lawsuits from being pursued under state laws, which may have more stringent label standards than the EPA.

Bayer is reportedly lobbying Congress to add provisions to the latest version of the Farm Bill, which is intended to address regulations and funding for the nation’s agricultural industry. However the pesticide manufacturer is urging lawmakers to include provisions that may shield the company from future Roundup lawsuits over failure to warn about the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with some reports indicating Bayer helped write the first draft of the federal bill currently under consideration.

Roundup has been widely used for decades in the agricultural industry, as well as for residential purposes as a weed killer, containing glyphosate as the active ingredient. Although it has been marketed as safe for humans, there is now growing research highlighting serious health concerns for users.

In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), classified glyphosate as a probable cancer-causing agent. Since then, a number of restrictions have been imposed on Roundup use in various parts of the world, due to concerns of an increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers linked to the weed killer’s use.

As a result of the failure to warn about the potential side effects of glyphosate, Bayer and its Monsanto subsidiary have faced more than 120,000 Roundup non-Hodgkins lymphona lawsuits over the past decade, each raising similar allegations that users developed cancer after using the product in an agricultural setting or around the home.

Although Bayer and it’s Monsanto unit have paid more than $10 billion in Roundup settlements, the manufacturers continue face thousands of active lawsuits pending throughout the U.S. court system, and new claims continue to be filed as former users of the weed killer develop the blood cancer.

To artificially limit its liability for withholding information about the Roundup non-Hodgkins lymphoma risks for decades, Bayer has been pushing for new legislation that would grant the company immunity to such lawsuits at both the state and federal level.

According to various media reports, the company has now focused its efforts on the U.S. Farm Bill; a package of legislation passed once every five years that affects how food is grown, which agricultural programs the government will support, and new regulations on the industry.

The draft version of the Farm Bill (PDF) includes a provision, reportedly drafted by Bayer, which calls for the federal government to establish uniform pesticide labeling laws, which would prevent states from having their own laws to protect citizens from Roundup and other weed and pest killers. The provision would stipulate that the company is immune to litigation if its labels meet the requirements of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Despite widespread concerns about glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, throughout the scientific community, and the World Health Organization’s determination that it probably causes cancer, the EPA, to date, has deemed glyphosate to be safe.

Other states, such as California, have said the weed killer represents a potential health threat, and have ordered cancer warnings be added to the labels, which Bayer has resisted through court filings.

Bayer has also lobbied for such protections in major agricultural states. Earlier this year, several Idaho lawmakers introduced legislation in that state which would make it harder for citizens injured by Roundup exposure to file claims against the company. Officials from the company testified in support of the Idaho measure in February.

It is unclear, particularly in an election year, when or in what shape the federal Farm Bill will be passed. However, Bayer officials have rejected claims that the Farm Bill addition would shield the company from all liability, saying much of that is still in the hands of the court.

August 2024 Roundup Lawsuit Update

After failing to secure dismissal of Roundup lawsuits under federal preemption arguments previously raised, which were rejected earlier this year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, hundreds of claims brought at the federal court level are currently being prepared for trials nationwide. However, most of the U.S. litigation is pending in state courts, including Missouri, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California, where a series of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma lawsuits are already scheduled to go before juries in the coming months.

Although Bayer continues to defend the safety of glyphosate, the company has failed to establish that it can consistently defend the safety of the herbicide at trial, suffering a string of massive losses in state court trials over the past year, including the largest Roundup lawsuit verdict to date, $2.2 billion, handed down by a Pennsylvania state court jury in January. It was later reduced to $400 million. That verdict was preceded by a $1.5 billion verdict in November 2023, and a slew of others plaintiff victories last year.

To limit liability from the Roundup failure to warn lawsuits, Bayer has announced that it will remove the active ingredient glyphosate from consumer products, while keeping the formulation for large agricultural users. However, it is still expected that Bayer will continue to face a steady stream of trials for years to come.