Neurodegenerative diseases join non-Hodgkin lymphoma as hazards linked to use of the popular herbicide

By Herbert Rothschild

I’m beginning this column without focusing on its main subject. I’m beginning by calling attention to Israel’s intentional starving of the people of Gaza. And until it allows the resumption of aid shipments, which it halted on March 2, I’m going to begin every column with a reminder that Israel is intentionally starving 2 million people.

I made this decision before I asked myself why I made it. When I explored my motives, I discovered that my personal needs preceded my rhetorical purpose, which should take precedence in editorial writing. My rhetorical purpose is to convince all my readers that they should oppose any further U.S. support of Israel and to convince my Jewish readers that Israel has become a scandal to Judaism. My personal purpose is to express a profound sadness that my people have failed so miserably.

The narrative that once carried conviction with me was that our centuries of persecution had made Jews especially sensitive to the plight of oppressed people, impelling us to the forefront of struggles for justice. In large part, I attributed my participation in the Civil Rights Movement in the South to that heritage. To then witness what Jews will do once we have another people in our grip has disheartened me. I have yet to come to terms with that appalling revelation.

Now for the subject of this column.

In its December issue, the Journal of Neuroinflammation published a study led by researchers at Arizona State University finding that glyphosate exposure exacerbates neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology in mice. These findings are of major importance, because glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the U.S. and globally, and until now the debate about its safety has solely focused on whether it is a carcinogen. Because that debate has yet to be settled, glyphosate is still approved for use in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

Monsanto first introduced glyphosate under the brand name Roundup in 1974. It was the company’s development of “Roundup Ready” GMO-modified crops seeds, however, that created a huge global demand for the product. In 1996 Monsanto introduced Roundup Ready soybeans, followed the next year by Roundup Ready cotton and Roundup Ready corn the next. Farmers could use glyphosate in concentrations strong enough to kill weeds without harming their crops.

Concerns about the health effects of glyphosate arose early and are ongoing. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has regulatory authority over agricultural chemicals, declared in 1991 that glyphosate was not carcinogenic to humans when used according to the printed instructions. The European Chemicals Agency, an agency of the European Union, reached the same conclusion. Alternatively, in 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

In 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that the EPA had violated environmental law in its glyphosate assessment and had to redo parts of it. A new review is ongoing, with the results due next year. In late 2023, the ECHA renewed its approval of glyphosate for 10 more years over the objections of several EU member states. Some of them, including Austria, Luxembourg and parts of Germany and France enacted local or partial bans.

The contest over glyphosate’s toxicity is being waged in the courts as well as the regulatory agencies. The first major award was in Dewayne “Lee” Johnson v. Monsanto in 2018. A jury found that Roundup had caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Johnson, a school groundskeeper who used Roundup regularly. It awarded him $289 million, which was reduced first to $78 million and then to $21 million on appeals. The largest award was $2 billion in Alva and Alberta Pilliod v. Monsanto (2019), but it was later reduced to $87 million.

Bayer AG, the German chemical giant, inherited the litigation when it bought Monsanto in 2018 for $66 billion. In June 2020, Bayer agreed to pay $9.6 billion to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits claiming harm from Roundup. Bayer also assigned $1.25 billion to pay future claims. As of 2023, around 165,000 claims, more than 50,000 of which are still pending, had been made against Roundup. New lawsuits continue to be filed from agricultural workers, homeowners and groundskeepers.

While costly, the litigation hasn’t been costly enough to dissuade Bayer from manufacturing and marketing Roundup. In the last fiscal year, the company reported revenue of 46.6 billion euros. Its consumer health division contributed 6.17 billion euros and its pharmaceutical division contributed 18.13 billion euros, while its crop science division contributed the most — 22.3 billion euros.

Monsanto’s patent on glyphosate expired in 2000, so Bayer isn’t the only current producer of the chemical. Thus, if you purchase a herbicide, you’ll have to read the product labels to avoid it. Nor is Bayer the only producer of glyphosate-tolerant crop seeds. Many of my readers will remember the names Syngenta and BASF from 2014, when we were engaged in the successful campaign to ban GMO-modified seeds in Jackson County.

The Arizona State study in the Journal of Neuroinflammation concluded that “despite an extended recovery period, exposure to glyphosate elicits long-lasting pathological consequences. As glyphosate use continues to rise, more research is needed to elucidate the impact of this herbicide and its metabolites on the human brain, and their potential to contribute to dysfunctions observed in neurodegenerative diseases.”

While Bayer and other glyphosate producers will doubtless wage a fierce contest at the regulatory agencies against these new findings, trial lawyers will seize on them to file new claims of harm. Pressure is mounting against the chemical. I may live to see its demise.

Herbert Rothschild’s columns appear Fridays. Opinions expressed in them represent the author’s views. Email Rothschild at [email protected].