Dan Wilson
Senior Member.
Monsanto (now merged with Bayer) is receiving a new wave of disapproval from the general public as a jury has ruled in favor of Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year old groundskeeper, and awarded him $289 million in damages. Johnson sued Monsanto claiming that the herbicide Roundup gave him cancer and that the company failed to warn consumers about the dangers of it. What is getting the most attention, however, is the claim that internal documents revealed that Monsanto knew about the dangers of Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, for decades and purposely manipulated the science to cover it up. Almost none of this is true.
Does glyphosate cause cancer?
The best evidence, gathered and reviewed by independent institutions from all over the world, says no. Although glyphosate was classified as a "probable carcinogen" in 2015, most scientists feel that the data does to support that classification. I previously wrote another thread about this but here are some brief excerpts from the most recent relevant publications. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29136183
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27677669
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27552246
Did Monsanto fail to warn consumers about Roundup?
Given that there is no solid link between normal glyphosate exposure and cancer, no. Monsanto claims that if used according to the label, there is little risk. The Roundup label does in fact provide safety information including the recommendation of personal protective equipment (PPE) and to wash clothes worn during use of Roundup separately from other clothes. https://45ijagbx6du4albwj3e23cj1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Roundup-Original.pdf
Did Monsanto manipulate the science, ghost-write articles, and bully scientists?
No. Even with the full release of emails and documents, no evidence of foul play can be found despite contradictory headlines. All relevant emails and documents can be found here: https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/toxic-tort-law/monsanto-roundup-lawsuit/monsanto-secret-documents/ Each description of every document is greatly exaggerated. Let's look at an example. What the headline says:
What the document actually shows are standard peer-review style edits to a paper. Going through all of the edits, not once does the editor change or manipulate data or rewrite any conclusions. In fact, Monsanto has long been accused of doing things like this but each investigation concludes that nothing nefarious happened. Instead, we find just find collaboration, a staple of good science. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017...l-school-says-no-evidence-monsanto-ghostwrote
No corporation is perfect. Monsanto does work with scientists outside of their company and pays some as consultants, which is common for companies to do. The main thing to emphasize here is that there is no evidence that these interactions have compromised the integrity or authenticity of the data and its interpretations by the scientific community as a whole. Monsanto is a particularly hated company, mostly because of very pervasive myths. As a result, a lot of bunk is associated with almost every story about them. Courts and lawyers do not represent scientific consensus. Scientific consensus is decided by the data and made clear by the voices of scientists. By the fault of both scientists and media outlets, those voices are not being heard.
Does glyphosate cause cancer?
The best evidence, gathered and reviewed by independent institutions from all over the world, says no. Although glyphosate was classified as a "probable carcinogen" in 2015, most scientists feel that the data does to support that classification. I previously wrote another thread about this but here are some brief excerpts from the most recent relevant publications. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29136183
Given that there is no solid link between normal glyphosate exposure and cancer, no. Monsanto claims that if used according to the label, there is little risk. The Roundup label does in fact provide safety information including the recommendation of personal protective equipment (PPE) and to wash clothes worn during use of Roundup separately from other clothes. https://45ijagbx6du4albwj3e23cj1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Roundup-Original.pdf
Did Monsanto manipulate the science, ghost-write articles, and bully scientists?
No. Even with the full release of emails and documents, no evidence of foul play can be found despite contradictory headlines. All relevant emails and documents can be found here: https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/toxic-tort-law/monsanto-roundup-lawsuit/monsanto-secret-documents/ Each description of every document is greatly exaggerated. Let's look at an example. What the headline says:
Last edited: