RELATED: >>>/related/11
A French court has banned Monsanto’s weedkiller ‘Roundup’ from being sold in France due to the fact that it causes cancer.
Germany’s Bayer, which purchased Monsanto for $64 billion last year, is currently facing thousands of US lawsuits by people who say its range of products caused their cancer.
Reuters.com reports: archive.ph
A court in Lyon in southeast France ruled that the approval granted by French environment agency ANSES in 2017 for Roundup Pro 360 had failed to take into account potential health risks.
Bayer, which said it disagreed with the decision and was considering its legal options, has cited regulatory rulings as well as scientific studies that claimed glyphosate to be "safe."
The firm is appealing a first U.S. court ruling that awarded $78 million in damages to a school groundskeeper from California.
“Bayer disagrees with the decision taken by the Administrative Court of Lyon to cancel the marketing authorization for RoundUp Pro 360,” it said in a statement.
“This product formulation, like all crop protection products, has been subject to a strict evaluation by the French authorities (ANSES), an independent body and guarantor of the public health security.”
Glyphosate, which is off-patent and marketed worldwide by dozens of other chemical groups including Syngenta and DowDuPont’s Corteva Agriscience, is due to be phased out in France within three years under a pledge by President Emmanuel Macron, who stopped short of an outright ban.
The French court said ANSES had not respected a precautionary principle in French law, notably by not conducting a specific evaluation of health risks for Roundup Pro 360.
“Despite the European Union’s approval of the active substance (glyphosate), the court considered that scientific studies and animal experiments showed Roundup Pro 360 … is a potentially carcinogenic product for humans, suspected of being toxic for human reproduction and for aquatic organisms,” the court said in a summary of its ruling.
archive.ph
newspunch.com
