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
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:
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/27677669In this large, prospective cohort study, no association was apparent between glyphosate and any solid tumors or lymphoid malignancies overall, including NHL [non-Hodgkin lymphoma] and its subtypes. There was some evidence of increased risk of AML among the highest exposed group that requires confirmation.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27552246Glyphosate has been rigorously and extensively tested for carcinogenicity by administration to mice (five studies) and to rats (nine studies). Most authorities have concluded that the evidence does not indicate a cancer risk to humans.
Did Monsanto fail to warn consumers about Roundup?It is shown that the classification of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen was the result of a flawed and incomplete summary of the experimental evidence evaluated by the Working Group.
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.Another researcher mentioned in the email, David Kirkland, a genetic toxicologist based in Tadcaster, U.K., was a co-author on a 2016 paper with Williams and several others. That paper, which appeared in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology, reviewed the IARC findings and concluded the scientific research didn’t support claims that glyphosate posed a risk of genetic toxicity. He is adamant that the paper was not ghostwritten. "I’ve been in the field for 35 years. I’ve got a global reputation,” he told ScienceInsider. “I'm not about to try and compromise that by signing up to a paper that has been ghostwritten by someone else.”
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