glifosato

While the European Commission has just decided to renew the use of glyphosate for another ten years, the sentences that indirectly confirm the dangers of this herbicide are multiplying.Last Friday the synthetic chemical giant Bayer - which acquired the multinational Monsanto - was hit by an important ruling in which three of the thousands of farmers who brought legal action in this sense were in favour.The sentence imposed on the German multinational is exemplary, as it will have to pay compensation for over 1.5 billion dollars growers, who claim to have gotten cancer due to the use of Roundup, a product based on glyphosate.In the United States, the courts are increasingly ordering Bayer to compensate those who have become ill due to exposure to the controversial substance. The farmers who sued the multinational are called James Draeger, Valorie Gunther and Dan Anderson, who were awarded $61.1 million in actual damage and well 500 million dollars each in punitive damages.Specifically,...

Europe will allow the use of glyphosate within the Union for another 10 years.The European Commission established this "on the basis of comprehensive safety assessments conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)" together "with the Member States".While for years there has been discussion on the impact on biodiversity and, above all, on the food risks for consumers produced by glyphosate - classified by the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer as potentially carcinogenic in 2015 -, a group of European chemical multinationals with strong commercial interests in the most used herbicide in the world (among which the names of Bayer, Syngenta and Nufarm stand out) had made a request for an extension.And now they will be satisfied.In the press release announcing the decision, the Commission wrote that the use of glyphosate will in any case be subordinated "to some new conditions and restrictions", ma...

Italy has given a favorable opinion to the European Commission's proposal to extend the use of the herbicide glyphosate for another 10 years.However, overall, a majority was not reached necessary for the green light.The contrary position of Austria, Croatia and Luxembourg weighed heavily, as did the abstention of Germany, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Malta.The extension of the authorization of the debated pesticide it has therefore been averted for now.For now.EU states will in fact be invited to vote on the appeal again in November.In this circumstance, the EU executive may modify the proposal, but if the qualified majority is not reached, it will be up to the European Commission to decide autonomously. The request for extension was made by a group of European chemical multinationals with strong commercial interests against the most used herbicide in the world, such as Bayer, Syngenta and Nufarm.Request which was then accepted and formalized by the EU Commission on t...

Chemical giant Bayer has been ordered to pay $78 million to a Pennsylvania man who said he developed cancer due to prolonged use of Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide made by the company.The sentence was handed down yesterday by a Philadelphia jury.This is only the latest verdict resulting from a long series of lawsuits against the German multinational, which in 2018 acquired Monsanto, the company that originally put the herbicide on the market.The World Health Organization classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic" in 2015, but despite this, at the end of 2023 the European Union the authorization for the use of the substance was renewed, albeit with new restrictions. The 51-year-old who won the lawsuit against Bayer, William Melissen, used Roundup consistently from 1992 until 2020, when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.The man then took Bayer to court in 2021, claiming cancer the consequence of his exposure to the chemicals present in the herbicide.Tom K...