Makers win dispute over pesticide labels
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monsanto in a dispute over cancer warnings on pesticide labels, specifically those for the company’s Roundup weedkiller.
The court’s decision determined that state lawsuits aimed at holding the company liable for failing to warn consumers about the potential risks of Roundup exposure are barred by federal law.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a dissenting opinion joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch.
The court’s ruling comes after decades of debate and litigation over the safety of glyphosate, the main active ingredient in Roundup.
The Environmental Protection Agency first reviewed and registered glyphosate-based pesticides in 1974, and have repeatedly concluded that such products do not need to carry a cancer warning.
Concerns about Roundup‘s cancer risks increased in 2015, when the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act authorizes the EPA to regulate the use, sale, and labeling of pesticides, and includes a uniformity requirement prohibiting states from imposing requirements for labeling or packaging that differ from those required by the federal government, which is key to major rulings in this area.
Justice Kavanaugh noted that the EPA has repeatedly assessed the safety of glyphosate-based pesticides and “repeatedly concluded that glyphosate is not likely to cause cancer.”
As a result, Kavanaugh wrote, Monsanto is not required to add a cancer warning to Roundup‘s label, as this would run afoul of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act‘s uniformity requirement.
In her dissent, Justice Jackson argued that the court should have joined the “chorus” of state and federal courts that have rejected Monsanto‘s preemption argument, and that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act gives the EPA the authority to review product labels, but not the final say on cancer warnings, which is central to compliance in this sector.
The World Health Organization has more information on the International Agency for Research on Cancer and its classification of glyphosate on its website, which can inform content quality in related areas.
