Tell Your Senator to Vote NO on SF 2392
Hold Pesticide Manufacturers Accountable for Injury
Senate File 2392 (SF 2392), a disastrous bill that would provide virtual immunity to pesticide manufacturers whose products have caused injury and illness, has passed out of committee and will soon be up for a vote of the full Senate. SF 2392 provides, in part, that “for any pesticide registered with the United States environmental protection agency…, the label approved by the United States, environmental protection agency in registering the pesticide, or a label consistent with the most recent human health assessment performed under the federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, or a label consistent with the United States environmental protection agency classification for the pesticide…shall be sufficient to satisfy any requirement for a warning regarding health or safety….”
The bill is the ‘Bayer Protection Act’; as of 2022, Bayer had settled over 1,000 lawsuits and paid around $11 billion in damages from glyphosate-based products such as Roundup; as of that time, there are 30,000 pending lawsuits against Bayer. There are many studies showing glyphosate does cause certain types of cancer. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen; EPA has not made a similar finding. Bayer purchased Monsanto in 2018, and evidence in the court cases against Bayer prove that Monsanto employees and EPA officials colluded to distort the truth that glyphosate does cause cancer. The overwhelming majority of successful pesticide injury lawsuits are won under “failure to warn” claims such as the failure to warn of a product causing cancer. With the collusion between the pesticide industry and EPA, the EPA-approved labels on products, such as Roundup, don’t come close to accurately describing the health risks those products present.
Passage of SF 2392 into law would make it almost impossible for there to be a successful personal injury lawsuit against a company that had an EPA-registered pesticide. Another chemical giant that stands to benefit from SF 2392 is ChemChina formerly Sygenta, the manufacturer of the herbicide Paraquat; there are thousands with Parkinson’s disease involved in litigation over Paraquat being the cause of their illness, with the number of litigants steadily growing.
ACTION TO TAKE
Call and/or email your state senator and ask that he or she vote NO on SF 2392; calls are especially important . A list of senators is here. To find your legislators, you may enter you address at the link.
TALKING POINTS
1. Iowa citizens should have the right to get compensation against pesticide manufacturers for injuries caused by their products. Passage of SF 2392 would make it almost impossible to have a successful civil suit against a company that had an EPA-registered pesticide.
2. Products containing glyphosate do not have a warning about cancer despite many studies concluding that glyphosate is a carcinogen—an example of why reliance on EPA-approved labels provides inadequate protection.
3. Costs for injuries or illness caused by pesticide exposure can last a lifetime, potentially bankrupting affected individuals; why should companies like Bayer and ChemChina with deep pockets (each has over $100 billion in assets) not have to pay compensation for injuries their products have caused?
WAPF will be sending out future alerts on SF 2392 as events warrant.
LINKS
SF 2392 – https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=90&ba=SF2392
List of Senators – https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/senate
Find Your Legislators – https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find
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