Glyphosate will be listed as a carcinogen under Proposition 65, a state law that requires warning labels on cancer-causing chemicals, according to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).
OEHHA proposed listing glyphosate under Proposition 65 back in September 2015. Monsanto filed a lawsuit to block the listing, but Judge Kristi Kapetan ruled against Monsanto in January 2017.
OEHHA has been moving forward with cancer warning-labels after a state appellate court and the California Supreme Court affirmed Judge Kapetan’s ruling against Monsanto.
If further appeals are rejected, Monsanto will have roughly 1 year from the listing date to add a Proposition 65 label to Roundup and other glyphosate herbicides — or remove them from stores in California.
Lawsuits and legal setbacks for Monsanto have steadily increased since March 2015, when glyphosate was upgraded to a “probable human carcinogen” by cancer experts at the World Health Organization.
The WHO conclusions were based on three large studies that found higher levels of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma among farmers in the American Midwest, Canada, and Sweden who used glyphosate.
Since then, dozens of lawsuits have been filed by farmers, gardeners, and agricultural workers who were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after exposure to Roundup and glyphosate weed-killers.
Part of the problem is that Roundup was advertised for decades as “practically non-toxic” and “safer than table salt.” The other problem is that exposure to glyphosate has skyrocketed in the U.S., with over 90% of crops now sprayed with the weed-killing chemical. Low levels of glyphosate are routinely found in a variety of foods that millions of Americans eat every day.
Source: California Adds Herbicide Used By Monsanto To List Of Cancer-Causing Chemicals