German chemical giant Bayer is to appeal against a Missouri court's award of US$ 265m (£203m) to a US peach grower who blamed a herbicide for crop damage. Farmer Bill Bader sued Bayer and BASF, alleging that dicamba weed-killer drifted onto his orchard from nearby fields, destroying them.
The use of Bayer's contested weed-killer glyphosate, the subject of more than 10,000 lawsuits in the US over claims it causes cancer, will eventually die out, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the country's lower house on Wednesday.
Analysts at Brazilian health agency Anvisa have determined that the weed-killer glyphosate does not cause cancer while recommending exposure limits as international pressure to reduce use of the chemical grows. Companies such as Bayer AG and its unit Monsanto, which produces glyphosate-based weed-killers, have faced legal challenges over allegations that glyphosate causes cancer. A new study published this month also links high exposure to cancer.
Brazil’s health agency has concluded a re-evaluation of the safety of the weed-killer glyphosate, the most widely-used agriculture chemical in the country, and will present the findings and recommended guidelines for its future use on Tuesday, an official said.
United States agro-chemicals company Monsanto is facing a surge in lawsuits that may cost its new owners, Bayer, billions in damages. Monsanto manufactures glyphosate-based weed killers which some believe are carcinogenic. Last month it lost a US$ 289m court case that alleged its products Roundup and RangerPro had led to a Californian man's terminal cancer.