Glyphosate is said to be the most widely used pesticide in the U.S. Roundup is sprayed on 285 million acres of farmland annually, and 21 million pounds are used in parks, schoolyards, forests, roadways, and on residential lawns, as referenced in the CFS’s opening argument,

Congress requires the safety of pesticides to be reassessed every 15 years by the EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

CFS asserts that since the use of the product increased considerably since the last review — and evidence emerged demonstrating serious health effects — the safety of the product should have been carefully analyzed.

“Rather than rigorously assess the registration based on current science, EPA rubber-stamped Monsanto’s assurance of safety, contrary to its statutory duties,” CFS alleges in its argument to the Ninth Circuit.

Following a review that the EPA conducted over the course of several years, the agency concluded in December 2017 that glyphosate is “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

CFS also says that the EPA’s final determination is “at odds with EPA’s own prior determination that glyphosate is a possible carcinogen,” and that in 2015 the World Health Organization designated the herbicide as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

Although the EPA maintains that there are no substantial health risks associated with glyphosate, there have been several notable Roundup lawsuits in which juries have found enough evidence linking a plaintiff’s cancer to their use of the product, returning verdicts in the millions.

In June 2020, Bayer — which acquired Monsanto in 2018 — reached a settlement of more than $10 billion to resolve a series of Roundup lawsuits.

Roundup Puts Wildlife and Endangered Species at Risk, CFS Claims

The CFS lawsuit not only alleges the potential adverse health effects Roundup can cause in humans but draws attention to another potential issue — the possibility that glyphosate may also jeopardize protected species.

The non-profit argues in its brief that the EPA reregistered the herbicide without first consulting with wildlife experts, alleging that the agency committed a “flagrant violation” of the Endangered Species Act.

The EPA issued a late evaluation which determined that all of the 1,795 endangered species exposed to the chemical could be affected by it, with 93% likely to “experience adverse effects,” the lawsuit says.

One of the species CFS claims is threatened by glyphosate is the Monarch butterfly. The Monarch butterfly population has reportedly dramatically declined over the last two decades, during the time that “glyphosate use has exponentially grown,” the CFS says in its brief.

CFS also argues that labeling cannot effectively mitigate glyphosate’s potential health risks as it cannot slow the development of glyphosate-resistant weeds, which has played a role in the increased usage of Roundup.

The EPA’s “non-target organism advisory” alerting that the product may be toxic to plants, pollinators, and other organisms are insufficient, the organization adds.

While the advisory instructs glyphosate users to “minimize spray drift,” CFS contends that “it is entirely unclear how this ‘mitigation measure’ will do anything at all to protect the thousands of wild species at risk of harm from glyphosate use.”