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home depot
'Historic Victory': Bayer to End US Residential Sales of Glyphosate-Based Herbicides
"As agricultural, large-scale use of this toxic pesticide continues, our farmworkers remain at risk. It's time for EPA to act and ban glyphosate for all uses."
Jul 29, 2021
In a move that environmental groups celebrated as a "historic victory" following years of campaigning to remove Roundup and similar weedkillers from store shelves, Bayer on Thursday announced that it will halt the sale of glyphosate-based herbicides to consumers in the U.S. lawn and garden market by 2023.
"Bayer's decision to end U.S. residential sale[s] of Roundup is a historic victory for public health and the environment," Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety (CFS), said in a statement.
"As agricultural, large-scale use of this toxic pesticide continues," he added, "our farmworkers remain at risk. It's time for EPA to act and ban glyphosate for all uses."
While calling the announcement "an important victory to protect the health of Americans," Kendra Klein, senior scientist at Friends of the Earth, stressed that "action on this toxic weedkiller can't wait until 2023. Major home and garden retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's must lead the industry by ending the sales of Roundup immediately."
\u201cGlyphosate is a human health threat, posing cancer risks to farmworkers and others who spray it.\n\nEnding residential sales is the first step. Our farmworkers remain at risk as the agricultural, large-scale of this pesticide continues. \n\nOur message to EPA: Ban glyphosate!\u201d— Center for Food Safety (@Center for Food Safety) 1627583136
The key ingredient found in Roundup, the world's most widely used herbicide, is glyphosate. Described by the World Health Organization as "probably carcinogenic," glyphosate poses threats to human health and to pollinators such as bumblebees and monarch butterflies.
Bayer stated that it will switch Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers to formulas that "rely on alternative active ingredients" in order to "manage litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns."
Thursday's decision came in response to several legal battles that Bayer, a German pharmaceutical and biotech corporation, inherited when it acquired Monsanto, a U.S. agrochemical giant and creator of Roundup, in 2018.
Last year, Bayer announced multiple massive settlements totaling more than $11 billion to compensate individuals harmed by two Monsanto herbicides.
In one case, the company agreed to pay $10.9 billion to about 125,000 people who alleged the use of Roundup was to blame for their cancer diagnoses.
The Roundup litigation settlement was preceded by three high-profile lawsuits, in which juries sided with plaintiffs suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma "in finding that their exposure to glyphosate contributed to their cancers," CFS explained. "Plaintiffs Edwin Hardeman, DeWayne Johnson, and Alberta and Alva Pilliod were each awarded between $25 to $87 million."
"Massive amounts of glyphosate will continue to be sprayed in parks, schools, and on food crops."
--Kendra Klein, Friends of the Earth
Two months ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco affirmed a lower court ruling in Hardeman v. Monsanto, which found that Monsanto had failed to disclose the dangers glyphosate poses to human health and must be held accountable for the cancer suffered by users of Roundup.
By upholding the previous judgment against Monsanto, Kimbrell said at the time, the court "unanimously rejected Bayer's argument that Mr. Hardeman and thousands of others harmed by their products are prohibited by federal law from suing to redress their injuries."
In a separate settlement last year, Bayer agreed to pay $400 million to thousands of farmers whose crops had been damaged as a result of the widespread drift of Monsanto's dicamba herbicide. That agreement was preceded by two lawsuits that, according to CFS, "likely provided impetus for Bayer to settle."
In California, jury trials over Monsanto's Roundup and dicamba products continue to be held.
Meanwhile, CFS is also currently representing a coalition of farmworkers and environmentalists in a lawsuit that seeks to reverse the Environmental Protection Agency's approval of glyphosate, which was reviewed and registered in January 2020 by Trump administration officials.
While President Joe Biden's EPA admitted in May that the Trump-era assessment of glyphosate was flawed and requires a do-over, the agency failed to provide a deadline for a new decision and argued that Roundup should remain on U.S. shelves in the meantime.
Given that Bayer's decision to stop selling glyphosate-based herbicides by 2023 only applies to consumers in the U.S. lawn and garden market, Klein emphasized that "the battle against this toxic chemical is far from over."
"Massive amounts of glyphosate will continue to be sprayed in parks, schools, and on food crops," she added. "Retailers and regulators must act now to ban this cancer-linked weedkiller."
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65+ Advocacy Groups Urge Home Depot and Lowe’s to Remove Cancer-Causing Roundup from Shelves
"Lowe's and Home Depot can continue to contribute to the poisoning of people and environment, or they can help their customers take on the existential crises of pesticide-induced diseases."
Aug 26, 2020
Appealing to Home Depot and Lowe's to be part of the solution to environmental and public health hazards, rather than a contributor to them, more than 65 advocacy groups on Wednesday called on the home improvement giants to take the herbicide Roundup off their shelves and online stores, citing numerous concerns about the product.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a probable human carcinogen since 2015. While 10 countries have imposed outright bans on the weedkiller since then, and 15 have placed restrictions on its use, the U.S. continues to allow stores to sell Roundup and other products containing glyphosate. The Environmental Protection Agency maintains that glyphosate does not cause cancer in humans, despite WHO's finding.
\u201cWe're joining 65+ orgs in calling on @HomeDepot @Lowes to stop selling cancer-causing Roundup\n\nThese companies can continue to contribute to the poisoning of people & environment \u2014 or make a significant difference in reducing the use of this toxic product\n\nhttps://t.co/vCH5rukHQA\u201d— Friends of the Earth (Action) (@Friends of the Earth (Action)) 1598452207
"Regulatory agencies have failed to protect us," Mackenzie Feldman, executive director at Herbicide-Free Campus, said in a statement. "Young people are taking their health into their own hands and demanding that Home Depot and Lowe's remove glyphosate-based herbicides from the shelves. We have sufficient scientific evidence to know the adverse effects these products have on our own bodies, as well as on the environment. It is Home Depot and Lowe's responsibility to protect the many people who still use these products and are unaware of the risks."
"Regulatory agencies have failed to protect us... It is Home Depot and Lowe's responsibility to protect the many people who still use these products and are unaware of the risks."
--Mackenzie Feldman, Herbicide-Free Campus
Costco and the British home and garden store B&Q have committed to phasing out Roundup, and the groups called on Home Depot and Lowe's to take responsibility for the safety of their customers as well, as they have previously by committing to ending sales of pesticides containing neonicotinoids.
"Home and garden stores can make a significant difference in reducing the use of this toxic product," said Kendra Klein, senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth. "Research shows that homeowners use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops. It's reckless to sell consumers products linked to cancer when safer organic alternatives exist."
The groups called on the companies to expand sales of organic weed killers that they already sell.
In addition to being linked to cancer, exposure to glyphosate has been connected to high rates of kidney disease, pregnancy complications, endocrine disruption, and Parkinson's disease.
The chemical has also been identified as a primary driver of declines in monarch butterfly and honeybee populations, potentially threatening one in three bites of food for humans.
In 2018, a California jury found agrochemical giant Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, liable in the case of Dewayne Johnson, a groundskeeper who blamed years of direct exposure to the product for his cancer diagnosis. Monsanto was ordered to pay $39 million in compensation and $250 million in punitive damages to Johnson. A judge later reduced Johnson's compensation to $78 million.
Bayer AG, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, has so far agreed to pay $10 billion to settle 95,000 cases out of court.
With their letter to Home Depot and Lowe's, the advocacy groups said Wednesday, they offered the stores a choice.
"As leading retailers of garden pesticides, supplies, and equipment, Lowe's and Home Depot can continue to contribute to the poisoning of people and environment, or they can help their customers take on the existential crises of pesticide-induced diseases, like cancer, climate change, and biodiversity decline through the sale of products compatible with organic land management," said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides.
In recent days, advocates have circulated a petition, urging individuals concerned with public health and biodiversity to join the call directed at the two companies.
\u201cW/ over 125,000 #glyphosate/ #Roundup non-Hodgkins lymphoma cases pending it\u2019s time for @Lowes & @HomeDepot to put people above profits. Sign here to demand #cancer-causing RoundUp is taken off the shelves & is replaced with organic non-toxic alternatives:\nhttps://t.co/d3jS9u3ifY\u201d— Rachel Parent (@Rachel Parent) 1598025749
\u201cTAKE ACTION: Tell @Lowes and @HomeDepot to get #Roundup off their shelves! Remind garden retailers they have an important role to play \u2014 let them know our health is more important than #Bayer's profits. via @bpncamp\n\nhttps://t.co/yOxBsGQ4c9\u201d— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@Robert F. Kennedy Jr) 1597839720
"With over 125,000 glyphosate/Roundup non-Hodgkins lymphoma cases pending, it's time for Lowe's and Home Depot to put people above profits," tweeted activist Rachel Parent.
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