B&Q will stop selling Roundup over cancer link
B&Q will stop selling the weedkiller Roundup – after it has been linked to causing cancer in the US.
The DIY giant has delisted the popular weedkiller and other glyphosate-based products, which will disappear from shelves once existing stock is sold.
Roundup is no longer available in any size on B&Q’s website, but it is still selling one-litre bottles at a clearance price at its outlets.
Glyphosate-based products are the most commonly used weedkiller in gardens and farms despite long-standing health concerns.
It is believed a third of cereal crops, such as wheat and barley, are sprayed with glyphosate – which is used to both kill weeds and act as a drying agent so the plants are easier to harvest.
Studies have found traces of the chemical in 60% of wholemeal bread and other foods from ice cream to snacks and breakfast cereals.
Glyphosate has been linked to health issues such as cancer and liver and kidney damage.
B&Q said its decision to remove the products is part of a wider effort to help customers create ‘healthier gardens’. It has already removed neonicotinoids sprays because of concerns for bees, and metaldehyde, a slug pellet, because it harms birds and other wildlife. A spokeswoman for B&Q Ireland said last night: ‘B&Q is reviewing its entire garden care and maintenance range.
‘We are always looking at how we can help our customers create healthier gardens and the current review has been ongoing for three years.
‘This has included removing neonicotinoids from our flowering plants in 2018, and in 2019 the removal of products containing metaldehyde. This year we will be removing all products containing glyphosate.’
In the UK, the Royal Horticultural Society and some supermarkets and garden centres have
Manufacturer was sued
dropped Roundup, but the active ingredient is still available in products from many garden centres in Ireland.
The weedkiller was developed by US agrochemical company Monsanto, which was bought by the German chemical giant Bayer in 2018. The company was sued in the US last year by claimants who said that the chemical led to them getting cancer.
A jury in California found that Bayer was liable for causing an elderly couple to develop nonHodgkin lymphoma.
They ordered Bayer to pay Alva and Alberta Pilliod $2billion (€1.83billion) in damages, which a trial judge later reduced to $86million (€79million).
The Pilliods, who are in their 70s, used Roundup for more than 30 years. They are both in remission but they testified about lasting damage from the cancer.
There are more than 50,000 similar legal cases against Bayer. The company continues to deny that glyphosate causes cancer, saying decades of studies show it’s safe.