Monsanto Sued In Los Angeles for False Advertising

Monsanto is still dodging a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County, California. This lawsuit claims Monsanto is guilty of false advertising. They claim arose from television ads which claimed glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, targets enzymes found only in plants and not mammals. Monsanto claimed Glyphosate is harmless to humans and animals.

The suit says the targeted enzyme, EPSP synthase, is found in microbiota which lives in human intestines. The suit also claimed there are numerous human, and animal, health issues linked to the disruption of intestinal microbes.

Glyphosate has been proven to kill intestinal bacteria and has been linked to stomach and bowel afflictions. Also triggered by Glyphosate’s work in the human body are indigestion, ulcers, colitis, sleeplessness, depression, obesity, infertility and Crohn’s Disease. The World Health Organization, WHO, announced glyphosate is carcinogenic.

An Environmental Protection Agency memorandum, dated October 30, 1991, says the EPA classified glyphosate as a carcinogen in 1985. The EPA’s 1991 memo changed, without justification or authorization, the status of glyphosate to NON-carcinogenic. Three scientists refused to sign. Their work shows an increase in tumors in lab animals tested with glyphosate. Because of a variation in the number of tumors, Monsanto claimed that the tumors could not be linked to glyphosate.

In China, Beijing resident Yang Xiaolu filed suit against China’s Ministry of Agriculture requesting data from the toxicology records given to the Chinese government for glyphosate pesticide registration in that nation. The ministry denied the petition and pointed to “trade secrets” as the reason. Observers are still wondering how a toxicology report could contain trade secrets as trade secrets normally constitute ingredients or a recipe for the manufacturing process.

Monsanto is accused of deliberately falsifying data to conceal the truth of glyphosate as being harmful to mammals. “We are not trying to show that Roundup is toxic; we are pointing out that Monsanto is lying about the enzymes which Roundup targets,” said T. Matthew Phillips, an attorney for the plaintiffs.