the truth about the bills
One of my greatest hopes here in The Digest is to be as transparent as possible and to educate Missouri citizens regarding policy that effects the lives of all Missourians. There are two bills this session, SB 14 & HB 544, that have gotten a lot of attention with our citizens due to the millions of dollars being spent in advertising. Unfortunately, the advertising has been very deceptive, which is so often the case. I'd like to clarify what this legislation actually does and why I oppose it.
These bills are referred to around the Capitol as "The Bayer Bills," because they are mainly written for the benefit of the company who produces a pesticide product called glyphosate, which you probably know as RoundUp. Monsanto is the company that created this product and you are likely familiar with that name as well. However, Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 for nearly 60 BILLION dollars.
Monsanto was an agricultural company based in St. Louis. Bayer is a German chemical and pharmaceutical company. Bayer kept RoundUp and the glyphosate products but dropped the Monsanto name. There have been over 150,000 claims made against Bayer, mostly alleging that RoundUp caused cancer. These court cases have cost the company millions of dollars and they'd love to put a stop to that by prohibiting their product users from filing winnable lawsuits.
WHAT THE BILLS SAY
SB 14 & HB 544 are identical bills. They both add one paragraph of new language to our statutes in chapter 281 on Pesticides. The new paragraph would be added to section 281.260, on Registration of Pesticides. Below, you'll see screen shots of the new language in both bills. The first photo is page 5 lines 122 through 130 of SB 14. The second photo is page 3 lines 79 through 84 of HB 544.
WHAT THIS NEW LANGUAGE MEANS
As you can see, the language underlined in red states the EPA label shall satisfy any requirements for warning labels regarding cancer. The practical effect is that a victim of cancer has no ability to hold the company responsible. You can see an example of a label below.
If this bill should pass, a simple label such as this would remove ANY possibility of ANY Missourian to file a winnable liability suit against Bayer (or any other pesticide company) if it could be proven RoundUp (or any other pesticide product) was a cause for a cancer diagnosis. In essence, this bill would give blanket immunity to Bayer and all other pesticide companies.
The only winnable liability case regarding glyphosate is a "failure to warn" case. This is the underlying cause of action in these cases. If passed, these bills would make it so that the current label is correct and no suit could be brought for this purpose.
I believe every Missourian deserves to have their day in court when their rights have been infringed upon.
I believe no company should ever have immunity from wrongs they might have caused.
When you lose your right to have your day in a court of law in front of a jury of your peers when you've been harmed or your rights infringed, I believe you cease to have those rights. It's the government's purpose to protect the rights of the people and it's the duty I swore an oath to do. For this reason, I will work to defeat this legislation in every way possible in my seat as a Missouri senator.
killing these bills will not...
- force Bayer to quit producing RoundUp.
- force farmers to quit using RoundUp or glyphosate products.
- force farmers to buy Chinese or other foreign products.
- mean that Bayer will lose every suit brought against them.
if these bills pass
If passed, these bills would...
- give blanket immunity to Bayer and other pesticide companies when their glyphosate products cause harm.
- put Missouri citizens at risk of great loss without a path to recoup their losses
my thoughts
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