From Organic Consumers Association
In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer acknowledged the carcinogenicity of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. This made lawsuits on behalf of Roundup exposed cancer victims possible and resulted in billion-dollar jury awards.
Shamefully, the IARC decision didn’t influence the Environmental Protection Agency, but Bayer (which now owns Monsanto) said that, to limit liability, by 2023 it would stop selling glyphosate-based herbicides to consumers, limiting sales to farmers and pesticide professionals.
It’s 2023. Did Bayer keep its promise?
No it did not. Bayer is still selling Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide directly to consumers for home use.
What happened?
Bayer never took glyphosate-based Roundup herbicides off the shelves, it just began offering glyphosate-free versions.
Replacement versions of Roundup™ products are also toxic, as Beyond Pesticides writes in letters to Home Depot and Lowe’s. “Roundup® Dual Action, for example, contains the following active ingredients: triethylamine salt of triclopyr, fluazipop-P-butyl, diquat dibromide, and ammonium salt of imazapic—ingredients that are reproductive and developmental toxicants, sensitizers, and toxic to aquatic and other organisms.”
Triclopyr is especially concerning. Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides offers this consumer warning:
In laboratory tests, triclopyr caused an increase in the incidence of breast cancer as well as an increase in a type of genetic damage called dominant lethal mutations. Triclopyr also is damaging to kidneys and has caused a variety of reproductive problems.
Diquat dibromide is implicated in Parkinson’s disease and mass deaths of bald eagles.
To see glyphosate replaced with similarly toxic pesticides is incredibly disappointing, but it is infuriating to see glyphosate-based herbicides continue to be sold to consumers, too!
