Pesticide Threats to Human Health

"Glyphosate-based products have been used safely and successfully for over four decades worldwide and are a valuable tool to help farmers deliver crops to markets and practice sustainable farming by reducing soil tillage, soil erosion and carbon emissions."
Bayer AG statement

"When it comes to Roundup they’re [governments] dead wrong. And I know they’re dead wrong because when you look at the science it’s pretty clear."

"[Government regulators are not] truly unbiased."

"If tomorrow they decided ‘you know what, it actually does cause cancer,’ they’d have to tell the world that for 40 years they’ve been wrong, that people have been dying under their watch."

"It’s a lot easier to keep the status quo."

Brent Wisner, U.S. attorney, Los Angeles-based

Bottles of Monsanto's Roundup pesticide are pictured in a gardening store.

PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images

Canada is "dead wrong" two visitors to Canada stated unequivocally, in not recognizing that the manufacturer of the glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup, is a threat to people coming in contact with it. The two, Michael Bauman and Brent Wisner were on the team of lawyers that managed to succeed in persuading the U.S. justice system to find for their client, a former groundskeeper who believes his terminal cancer resulted from years of exposure to the herbicide glyphosate, Roundup. 

Their client was the beneficiary of a court that ordered Bayer AG to pay $289 million, later dropped to $78 million, a significant agreement of the danger inherent in the use of the weedkiller. It is an order that the company is appealing, but over 11,000 additional plaintiffs in the United States are suing the Germany-based Bayer which since 2018 when it bought out Roundup maker Monsanto is left with the product they continue to persist in stating has no health risks to humans.

Lawyer Baum knows of no Canadians that have brought suit over Roundup, but he and his colleague Wisner arrived in Ottawa to meet with Members of Parliament on Parliament Hill to acquaint them with the issue, explaining evidence that proves glyphosate causes cancer. "There's going to be the same type of injuries suffered here", he assured skeptics.

The two lawyers will continue on to Toronto to work with Canadian activists and lawyers in a bid to determine how most effectively to proceed, with the intended purpose  of potentially beginning court action, according to CEO of Friends of the Earth, Beatrice Olivastri. "We're actively looking for ways forward in litigation", she stated.

American lawyers who successfully sued the makers of the glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup on behalf of a man dying of cancer say Canada is "dead wrong" to allow it to be widely used here. (File)

On the market for over forty years, glyphosate has its appearance in over 130 products available for use in Canada. The Pest Management Regulatory Agency branch of Health Canada has just recently re-approved glyphosate for use in the country following a process of review, including reviewing their assessments in the past following objections filed by eight organizations. Objections that included allegations that Monsanto improperly influenced evidence that Health Canada relied on to determine the safety of the product.

Agency scientists "left no stone unturned", discovering no evidence the science was tainted, according to Connie Moase, director in the health-effects division of Health Canada. Canada's review of glyphosate was thorough and proper, proving yet again that it is a safe product, stated Bayer, noting glyphosate is approved for use in 160 countries. "Twenty of our best scientists" reviewed the evidence before approving the project, stressed a spokesperson for Canada's Minister of Health. 

According to lawyer Wisner, the unbiased International Agency for Research on Cancer -- a specialized agency of the World Health Organization -- scientists were unanimous in concluding glyphosate is a human carcinogen. The glyphosate decision has caused a "crisis in confidence in Canada’s pesticide police", according to Ms. Olivastri of Friends of the Earth, Canada.

Side Effects Associated with Monsanto Roundup

Adverse side effects that have been allegedly linked to use of glyphosate products including Monsanto's Roundup include:

• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Leukemia
• Brain cancer
• Lung cancer
• Testicular cancer
• Thyroid cancer
• Lymphoma
• Kidney disease

• Liver disease
• Nerve damage
• Multiple sclerosis
• Parkinson’s disease
• Diabetes
• Infertility
• Birth defects

Consumer Safety Watch