The U.S. Supreme Court handed a major legal victory to German agrichemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer last month when it reined in thousands of lawsuits accusing the German company of failing to warn users that glyphosate, the active ingredient in its Roundup weedkiller, causes cancer.

Pesticide Industry Secures Successes

In February, weedkiller dicamba was re-approved for two growing seasons with some restrictions. In April, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion concluded that atrazine does not pose an extinction risk to threatened and endangered species it studied.

Bayer said the Supreme Court decision was “good for science, farmers, and industries that depend on regulatory clarity for innovation.” The company had faced tens of thousands of lawsuits from Roundup users who said the product caused their cancer.

The EPA emphasized that its decisions, which in some cases include new restrictions on applications, mean that “the impact for farmers and the environment is straightforward. Growers get modern, more precise chemistries that do more with less.”

Glyphosate and Dicamba

Glyphosate has drawn fire for years from critics who say it causes cancer and other health problems. Bayer maintains the pesticide can be used safely. Dicamba, a weedkiller manufactured by Bayer and Syngenta, is sprayed by farmers on cotton and soybean crops that have been genetically engineered to tolerate it.

Environmental groups have criticized its use because it can drift away from where it is sprayed and damage neighboring plants. In 2024, a U.S. District Court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had previously violated public input procedures in its approval of three dicamba products, and vacated the product registrations.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.