£9bn for victims who say weedkiller gave them cancer
British farmers told: Don’t use Roundup
GARDENERS and farmers have been warned to stop using Britain’s biggestselling weedkiller.
Roundup has been at the centre of growing health concerns, particularly relating to a type of blood cancer.
Chemical giant Bayer has agreed to pay up to £9billion to settle some 125,000 lawsuits in the US from Roundup users who claim it caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
But Bayer, which bought original manufacturer Monsanto in 2018, said it was not admitting that Roundup – which contains glyphosate, the most commonly used herbicide in the world – is unsafe.
The weedkiller, developed in the 1970s, has been banned in some countries and campaigners are calling on the Government to outlaw it in Britain. B&Q, Dobbies and supermarkets including Waitrose have already stopped selling Roundup and others are under pressure to follow suit.
Louise Payton of the Soil Association said yesterday: ‘ The ongoing scientific and legal disputes clearly reaffirm the need for a new, transparent and systematic reassessment of the safety of glyphosate. This latest settlement suggests the need for this may be getting urgent.’
Dr Alasdair Rankin, director of research and policy for Blood Cancer UK, said: ‘While not everyone agrees that glyphosate increases risk of lymphoma, there is enough evidence to think that it probably does.
‘People who want to take a precautionary approach should avoid using it, and those who decide to continue using it should take careful safety precautions. If you have used these weedkillers in the past, try not to worry. For those using it occasionally, any increase to their risk is likely to be small.’
The controversial weedkiller was judged a probable human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organisation, in 2015. But regulators in both US and the EU deemed it acceptable for use and the EU relicensed glyphosate for a further five years in 2017.
It has been championed by the National Farmers’ Union and highprofile advocates, such as the Conservative MP Therese Coffey.
In 2018 Dr Coffey, now Work and Pensions Secretary but then an environment minister, tweeted a picture of the product in her garden captioned: ‘Getting ready to deploy the amazing Roundup!’
Cancer Research UK’s website says there is ‘no good evidence that people exposed to glyphosate at low levels, for example when using it as a weedkiller in their garden, have an increased risk of cancer’.
Pesticide Action Network UK said some users and unions have wanted to take legal cases in this country, but the court system – and the high bar for proof – makes it more difficult than in the US.
Its head of policy Josie Cohen said: ‘The UK should follow the example of many other countries around the world by banning its use and supporting farmers, gardeners and local councils to adopt non-chemical alternatives.’
Bayer chief executive Werner Baumann called the £9billion settlement ‘financially reasonable when viewed against the significant financial risks of continued, multi-year litigation’.
The company said that it is confident an independent review into whether Roundup can cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma will show the product is safe.
Monsanto had lost three US court cases brought by Roundup users who claimed it caused their cancers, the latest in August when a California jury ordered the firm to pay a couple £70million.
‘The UK should ban its use’