Monsanto might lose a legal battle for causing cancer

Image: Shutterstock/defotoberg

Monsanto has been met with an ever increasing number of lawsuits claiming their products cause cancer in people that use them. Specifically, Yolanda Mendoza is suing Monsanto claiming that their products caused her stage four non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma when she was just in her mid-thirties. Mendoza explained to CBS News that she would regularly walk around her one-acre property with a backpack sprayer containing Roundup, and that she believes the product brought on her illness.

Ever since the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reported that Monsanto’s popular yet controversial product, Roundup, contained an ingredient that was “probably carcinogenic to humans” in March 2015, accusations like this have been mounting against them. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world, but is becoming the center of debate when it comes to it’s safety for use. As an ingredient in Roundup and one of the most popular weed killers on the market, many people are exposed to this chemical every day.

Monsanto has attempted to seek dismissal of lawsuits such as Mendoza’s along with many others, but as of late has failed. The lawsuits include complaints that Monsanto failed to warn farmers, landscapers, gardeners and others exposed to high levels of the herbicide and weedkiller of the link between the product and cancer. Monsanto continuously requests that the lawsuits be thrown out, but recent cases have been advancing. This is somewhat new, since most cases in the past have been thrown out by the court system upon Monsanto’s request.

Monsanto denies the IARC’s findings regarding glyphosate, claiming that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has classified the herbicide as non-carcinogenic in the past. However, this was after pressure from Monsanto to retract any statements about the ingredient being harmful.

This entire crisis is very concerning, not only for people who use Roundup on a regular basis, but in regards to the intentions of a big corporation such as Monsanto. Not being truthful about ingredients in Roundup isn’t the only time they’ve lied to their consumers and the public. Lies have been told about GMO’s and GMO labeling time and time again by Monsanto, and it leaves us wondering how we can trust large organizations such as this. If they can’t be honest about what is truly in their products and the potential risks that come with using them, what else have they been lying about?

Monsanto is surely facing a PR nightmare surrounding all of this, and we can only hope they become honest about their products and intentions so that this issue can go away peacefully.