After years of campaigning, Monsanto-Bayer agreed to end selling its flagship herbicide product, Roundup, which contains cancer causing glyphosate, to residential consumers. It took the action to "manage litigation risks". It will replace consumer glyphosate products with formulations that “rely on alternative active ingredients”. The EPA refused to order the removal of Roundup from the shelves of home improvement centers despite admitting in court that its assessments of the effects of glyphosate on the environment and consumers where flawed. The Centers for Food Safety are currently suiing the EPA for its 2020 registration of Roundup. The plaintiffs present ample evidence that glyphosate is a human health threat, posing the risk of cancer in particular to farmworkers, landscapers and gardeners. Last year, Bayer settled several product liability cases for over ten billion dollars. Trials of other cases in California continue. A leading judgement against Monsanto-Bayer in Montana was recently reaffirmed on appeal. The plaintiff in the case used Roundup for more than two decades before he was diagnosed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Monsanto-Bayer refused to acknowledge any safey concerns in its announcement to end retail sales of glyphosate based products. The company plans to market Roundup until 2023.
