Monsanto Fakes Research to Keep the Money Rolling In While Poisoning the Public
Monsanto is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. Most recently, a federal judge in San Francisco unsealed Monsanto’s internal emails and emails to and from federal regulators indicating that Monsanto ghostwrote research on its controversial Roundup weed killer compounds, then passed it off as research from independent academics. These communications also show that Monsanto worked with senior officials at the EPA to quash a review of glyphosphate, Roundup’s main toxic ingredient, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Among the email gems was those written by a Monsanto executive, giving his colleagues the green light to ghostwrite glyphosate research and then hire academics to put their names on the papers as Monsanto had done in the past, saying "[w]e would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names so to speak.” Another one from a Monsanto executive, to an EPA official who was heading the cancer risk evaluation of Roundup, stated that "If I can kill this, I should get a medal." The Roundup evaluation never happened.
The point of such efforts was undoubtedly to mislead the American public into believing that Round-Up won’t give them cancer, despite a host of truly independent research suggesting that glyphosphate is a probable human carcinogen. In addition to its potential cancer-causing properties, Roundup has also been linked to a host of other health issues such as ADHD, Alzheimer's disease, kidney disease, liver disease, reproductive problems and birth defects, as well as environmental impacts, such as the record decline of monarch butterflies to the point of extinction. A 2014 study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey detected the presence of Roundup in 75 percent of air and rainfall test samples taken from the Mississippi Delta, a fertile agricultural region.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (“IARC”) published their monograph on glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, and classified it as "probably carcinogenic in humans" (category 2A) based on epidemiological studies, animal studies, and in vitro studies. IARC is a division of the World Health Organization, and an independent body of scientists that adheres to the strictest scientific methodology in coming to its determinations regarding carcinogens. Moreover, a case-controlled study published in 1999 by Swedish scientists Lennart Hardell and Mikael Eriksson showed that non-hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is linked to exposure to a range of pesticides and herbicides, including glyphosate. Prior to the 1940s, non-hodgkin’s lymphoma was one of the world’s rarest cancers. Now it is one of the most common. Between 1973 and 1991, the incidence of non-hodgkin’s lymphoma increased at the rate of 3.3 percent per year in the United States, making it the third fastest-growing cancer. In Sweden, the incidence of NHL has increased at the rate of 3.6 percent per year in men and 2.9 percent per year in women since 1958.
Fake news is bad enough, but fake science represents an entirely different level of deceit. People have the right to choose food that has been produced without poisonous herbicides. Monsanto has repeatedly fought against truthful labeling regarding the food we are being sold, but its willingness to fake scientific studies represents a new low. If you or your loved ones have contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and were exposed to Roundup or other glyphosphate-containing products, you should contact a qualified attorney to explore your rights.
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