(Radio Iowa) – The U-S Supreme Court says Bayer can’t be sued for failing to warn people that the weedkiller Roundup could cause cancer. The ruling comes after Congress and the Iowa Legislature rejected legislation that would’ve limited lawsuits over pesticide-related illness. Iowa Farmers Union president Aaron Lehman says the Supreme Court decision is a “huge step backward for Iowa farmers.”
“Iowa farmers rely on safe and effective pesticides. The path to get to safe and effective herbicides is not to give blanket protections to pesticide manufacturers that have a clear link to cancer,” Lehman says. Lehman says the issue is especially important here. “We have a real cancer problem here in Iowa, and farming is already dangerous enough. So putting more barriers between farmers and their ability to protect their health and defend their health is a bad idea.”
Seventy percent of the Roundup sold in North America is made at a plant in Muscatine. Iowa candidates for governor Zach Lahn and Rob Sand also criticized the Supreme Court ruling. They’ve both said they oppose shielding pesticide companies from cancer lawsuits. Bayer’s C-E-O says the decision is good for American farmers.
