On this page, you will find assorted key information about the herbicide Roundup, and its primary ingredient, glyphosate.

* STEP NEWSLETTER ARTICLE: What's the Matter with Roundup?

This is a followup to our previous article and resource page on Roundup.

This article builds on that information.

Article from The Next STEP newsletter
Volume 22, Number 4 (July/August 2022)
(c) Patricia Dines, 2022. All rights reserved.

Positive Steps on the Roundup Front

Recent Good News
• U.S. Appeals Court directed the EPA to improve its glyphosate regulation. On June 17, 2022, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a lawsuit brought by environmental, farmworker, and food safety groups against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2020, during the prior administration.

The suit asserted that the EPA’s regulations don’t adequately consider whether glyphosate causes cancer and threatens endangered species. The Court agreed and directed the EPA to remedy these issues by October 2022.

The petitioners’ attorneys at the Center for Food Safety called this “a historic victory for farmworkers and others exposed to glyphosate.”

• The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an important test case, a $25 million ruling for a Roundup user. This June 21, 2022 Court decision affirmed a 2019 jury’s conclusion that Santa Rosa’s Edwin Hardeman’s two decades of Roundup use was a “substantial factor” in his cancer, and that Bayer failed to warn the public of the risks. 

Other Updates
• Roundup trial status. Roundup’s manufacturer Bayer (which bought Monsanto in 2018) has been battling hundreds of thousands of lawsuits alleging health harm, and is already facing billions of dollars in damages. The German company lost three trials that each awarded Roundup users tens of millions of dollars; it’s also won four trials. It agreed to pay about $9 billion to settle a group of about 125,000 cases (about 75% of lawsuits then). Cases can continue to be filed.

• Usage restrictions. Countries, states, and cities worldwide have restricted or banned glyphosate use. (See list at https://bit.ly/3u0Bunh.)

• Bayer’s glyphosate plans. In July 2021, Bayer announced its plan to remove glyphosate from its U.S. residential lawn and garden products only (including Roundup) in 2023. It said it would do this to “manage litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns.” Nonprofits urged them to do this sooner, and called on stores to remove these products from shelves.

Suggested Actions & Cautions
• Continue reading labels to evaluate pesticide products. Bayer’s plan to remove glyphosate from residential products didn’t say how long products will remain in stores, what the replacement chemical(s) will be, and what their toxicity is. Plus other companies can and do make residential glyphosate products.

• Don’t switch to more toxic herbicides, such as 2,4-D. For information about how to read pesticide labels, see The STEP Online Index under Assessing.

• Ask your yardwork and pest control companies what specific products they’re using. And buy organic food and beverages! Bayer plans to keep selling professional and agricultural glyphosate products. Thus we can still also be exposed to it through service companies, food, water, the environment, etc.

• When calling for pesticide reduction in shared environments (such as schools, offices, parks, and government buildings), don’t just say “Ban Roundup.” Request rules based on pesticide toxicity, so that they don’t swap in more-toxic products.

For more information, and our sources for this article, see www.healthyworld.org/Roundup2.html [that's this webpage!].
~ Patricia Dines

Know the Terms
Pesticide means any material we use to kill what we consider a pest. This umbrella word includes insecticides, herbicides, etc.

Sources and Further information

About this list:
* For your convenience, I've grouped these sources by their primary topic in my article. However, some of these articles also have information that covers other topic sections.
* Also, these are sources that I felt were easiest for readers to peruse, depending on what further information you might seek. However, I reviewed a notably wider range of articles in writing and researching this article, including getting multiple different sources to confirm and clarify key information.

1) U.S. Appeals Court directed the EPA to improve its glyphosate regulation. (June 17, 2022)
* "Federal Court Rejects Glyphosate Registration Decision Because EPA Ignored Cancer Risks, Endangered Species Risks," Center for Food Safety, June 17, 2022
https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/6659/federal-court-rejects-glyphosate-registration-decision-because-epa-ignored-cancer-risks-endangered-species-risks

* "Court rejects Trump-era EPA finding that Roundup weed killer is safe," by Matthew Daly, Associated Press, June 18, 2022
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/court-rejects-trump-era-epa-finding-that-roundup-weed-killer-is-safe

* "Farmworkers and Conservationists Sue EPA for Re-Approving Monsanto Cancer-Causing Pesticide," Center for Food Safety, March 20, 2020
https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/5965/farmworkers-and-conservationists-sue-epa-for-re-approving-monsanto-cancer-causing-pesticide

* "Public Oral Argument in Lawsuit Challenging EPA Approval of Toxic Herbicide Glyphosate," Center for Food Safety, January 7, 2022
https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/6543/media-advisory-public-oral-argument-in-lawsuit-challenging-epa-approval-of-toxic-herbicide-glyphosate

* "Roundup weed killer has been the subject of numerous lawsuits," By Jessica M. Semins, January 4, 2021
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/medical-problems/cancer-medical-problems/center-for-food-safety-to-9th-circuit-time-for-epa-to-ban-roundup

2) The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an important test case, a $25 million ruling for Roundup user Edwin Hardeman (June 21, 2022)
* "U.S. Supreme Court rejects Bayer bid to nix Roundup weedkiller suits," By Lawrence Hurley, Reuters, June 21, 2022
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-court-roundup-idTRNIKBN2O214V

* "Monsanto: Roundup substantial factor in man’s cancer, jury finds in key verdict," By Sam Levin, The Guardian, March 19, 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/19/monsanto-trial-roundup-verdict-edwin-hardeman-cancer

* "Roundup weedkiller a 'substantial factor' in man's cancer, US jury rules," France 24, March 20, 2019
https://www.france24.com/en/20190320-roundup-weedkiller-monsanto-substantial-factor-cancer-usa

3) Bayer’s glyphosate plans.
* "Bayer will stop selling Roundup for residential use in 2023, an effort to prevent future cancer lawsuits," The Counter, Jessica Fu, July 30, 2021
https://thecounter.org/bayer-glyphosate-products-roundup-residential-2023-cancer

* "Monsanto — Er, Bayer — Will End Consumer Glyphosate Sales. It’s Not Enough,"  Food & Water Watch, September 1, 2021. (Includes "a brief history of how Monsanto/Bayer has manipulated science and government agencies in order to keep selling their ... money-maker.")
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2021/09/01/monsanto-er-bayer-will-end-consumer-glyphosate-sales-its-not-enough

* "Bayer to end glyphosate sales to US consumers. Company will reformulate Roundup herbicide for residential lawn and garden use in 2023," by Britt E. Erickson, American Chemical Society, July 30, 2021
https://cen.acs.org/environment/pesticides/Bayer-end-glyphosate-sales-US/99/web/2021/07

* "Bayer Provides Update on Path to Closure of Roundup™ Litigation," Bayer, July 29, 2021
https://media.bayer.com/baynews/baynews.nsf/id/Bayer-Provides-Update-on-Path-to-Closure-of-Roundup-Litigation

* "Bayer may end sales of toxic weedkiller Roundup for residential use," Environmental Working Group, May 27, 2021. (Includes information on glyphosate application on FMO crops, and on oats just before harvest, which increases likelihood that it will remain in our food.)
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/bayer-may-end-sales-toxic-weedkiller-roundup-residential-use

4) Consumers call for stores to pull Roundup
* "Over 157,000 Consumers Call on Home Depot and Lowe's to End Sales of Cancer-Linked Roundup," Center for Food Safety, September 16, 2020
https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/6145/over-157000-consumers-call-on-home-depot-and-lowes-to-end-sales-of-cancer-linked-roundup

5) Glyphosate found in environment and our bodies; health and environmental impacts of glyphosate.
Note: This is just a sampling of the extensive evidence on this topic.

* "Exposure risk and environmental impacts of glyphosate: Highlights on the toxicity of herbicide co-formulants," Environmental Challenges, Volume 4, August 2021, 100149
"Environmental contamination and threats. Glyphosate has been detected in soil, crop products, crop-fed animals, humans, freshwater and organisms living there (Perez et al., 2011)."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667010021001281

* "U.S. researchers find Roundup chemical in water, air," By Carey Gillam, Reuters, August 31, 2011
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glyphosate-pollution/u-s-researchers-find-roundup-chemical-in-water-air-idUSTRE77U61720110831

* "Glyphosate Herbicide Found in Many Midwestern Streams, Antibiotics Not Common," U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey, April 16, 2019
https://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/glyphosate02.html

* "Glyphosate and AMPA in U.S. streams, groundwater, precipitation and soils," Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 2014
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70046159

* Also see the information, sources, and links in my prior Roundup article at https://www.healthyworld.org/Roundup.html.

6) Lawsuits & Settlements
* "Roundup NHL Cancer Lawsuit Update" (Key events timeline)
https://www.millerandzois.com/roundup-cancer-attorneys.html

* "Bayer inks largest settlement in pharma history with $10B Roundup deal," By Kyle Blankenship, June 24, 2020
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/bayer-inks-largest-settlement-pharma-history-10b-roundup-deal

7) Other information
* "What to Know About Glyphosate, the Pesticide in Roundup Weed Killer. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the U.S. It has also been linked to cancer," By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder, U.S. News and World Report, Aug. 19, 2019
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/what-to-know-about-glyphosate-the-pesticide-in-roundup-weed-killer

* For more of our STEP summary information about Roundup and alternatives ... see the STEP newsletter Index under Glyphosate/Roundup, Weeds, and Lawns. Also see BodyBurden for our articles about pesticides being found in our bodies, how they get there, their health impacts, and how to reduce them. You might also like to check out Sonoma County Activities and Schools, to learn more about the work being done to help us avoid toxics in public spaces, such as schools, parks, and more.

* For more about alternative treatments for weeds, plus handy information on other common pesticides, NCAP factsheets can be downloaded at www.pesticide.org/pesticide_factsheets. Other valuable information can be ordered at BIRC's website www.birc.org.

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