Groups sue US EPA over glyphosate reauthorization

Environmental and farmworker groups are challenging the US Environmental Protection Agency’s January 2020 decision to allow the commonly used herbicide glyphosate to remain on the US market. In two separate lawsuits filed March 20, the petitioners argue that glyphosate poses health risks to humans and endangered species. In 2015, the World Health Organization’s cancer agency deemed the herbicide “probably carcinogenic,” but the EPA disputes that finding. The agency is still evaluating glyphosate’s potential endocrine-disrupting effects in humans and risks to endangered species. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, now produced by Bayer, and in several generic formulations made by other companies. “EPA’s half-completed, biased, and unlawful approval sacrifices the health of farmworkers and endangered species at the altar of Monsanto profits,” George Kimbrell, legal director for the Center for Food Safety and counsel for the petitioners in one of the lawsuits, says in a statement. The environmental groups Natural Resources Defense Council and Pesticide Action Network North America raise similar concerns in the other lawsuit.