Pesticide Cancer Claims at Issue in Bill Headed for North Dakota Senate Vote

(Photo Illustration by Scott Olson/Getty Images via the North Dakota Monitor)

(By: Jeff Beach. North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota legislators have been wrestling with a pesticide bill backed by agricultural groups that would make it harder for people to win cancer liability lawsuits against the farm chemical industry.

House Bill 1318 would shield the maker of Roundup and other farm chemical manufacturers from lawsuits from people who say they were not adequately warned about potential dangers of the chemicals. The bill tries to make clear that the product label approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency gives consumers sufficient warning about any possible hazards.

Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, has been hit with lawsuits from people who have cancer and contend they were not adequately warned about exposure to the herbicide and its active ingredient glyphosate.

Sarah Hall Lovas, representing the North Dakota Agriculture Consultants Association and the North Dakota Grain Growers Association, said that the bill is needed to ensure that farmers have access to farm chemicals such as Roundup.