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Tell Iowa Representatives to Vote NO on HSB 737 & SF 2412 (formerly SSB 3188)
Stop Bayer Protection Act in the House
Senate File 2412 [SF 2412, formerly Senate Study Bill 3188 (SSB 3188)] passed out of the Senate last week, and is awaiting assignment to a House committee. At the same time, a companion bill, House Study Bill 737 (HSB 737) is up before the House Ways and Means Committee for a vote sometime this week.
It’s critical that you call your State Representative and ask them to oppose SF 2412 and HSB 737 in order to stop the relentless effort in Iowa to pass disastrous legislation that would provide virtual immunity to pesticide manufacturers whose products have caused injury and illness.
The bills provide, 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….”
This legislation is essentially a ‘Bayer Protection Act’; as of 2022, Bayer had settled over 100,000 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 this legislation 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 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.
If the bill passes out of subcommittee, it will be given a new number. WAPF will provide the new bill number and updates as events warrant.
ACTION TO TAKE
Call and/or email your State Representative and ask that he or she vote NO on both SF 2412 and HSB 737; calls are especially important. Below are Talking Points you can include. Click here for the list of Representatives.
Find Your Legislators – https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find
TALKING POINTS
1. Iowa citizens should have the right to get compensation against pesticide manufacturers for injuries caused by their products. Passage of into law 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?
LINKS
SF 2412 – https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=90&ba=SF2412HSB 737 – https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=90&ba=HSB737
Find Your Legislators – https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find
List of Representatives – https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/house
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