JEFFERSON CITY — A plan protecting pesticide makers from certain cancer-related legal claims could wither due to bipartisan opposition in the Missouri Senate.
Bayer, the German chemical giant and maker of the Roundup weedkiller, is pushing for legislation that would block claims alleging a failure to warn of pesticide cancer risks if the product used had a label approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Bayer, which acquired Creve Coeur-based Monsanto in 2018, has faced a mountain of lawsuits accusing the company of failing to warn consumers about risks associated with the Roundup weedkiller.
While supporters have raised concerns about the future availability of Roundup, opponents such as the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys have argued the measure impedes on peoples’ constitutional right to a trial by jury.
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With fewer than three weeks left in this year’s legislative session, the measure’s viability in the barely functioning Senate was in question Tuesday.
Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican who has been heavily backed by trial attorneys in his run for governor, poured cold water on the Bayer legislation Tuesday, signaling he would block action on the measure if it came to the Senate floor.
“We’re just going to say, ‘Hey, you know what ... you’re not liable for that anymore no matter what you put in your products,’†Eigel said Tuesday as he was blocking unrelated business.
“There’s a bill that’s working its way through the Senate right now,†he said. “We may talk about it on the Senate floor. I can’t wait.â€
“Nobody ran for office to exempt the powerful. We’ll see what kind of attention it gets,†Eigel said.
Eigel’s comments came after representatives for Bayer Tuesday morning pushed a Missouri Senate committee to advance the House measure, which cleared the lower chamber last week on a 91-57 vote.
Catherine Hanaway, the former Missouri House speaker and current attorney for Bayer, said Tuesday she believed plaintiffs could’ve still brought “modes of action†against the company if the law had been in place prior to the Roundup lawsuits.
Matt Clement, a Jefferson City attorney opposed to the plan, said, “there are possible other legal theories for sure. But the central theme of all of these cases is the failure to warn.â€
The panel is scheduled to vote on the House plan Thursday.
Bayer disputes claims that Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But it has set aside $16 billion and already paid about $10 billion of that amount to resolve some of the tens of thousands of legal claims against it.
Though some studies associate glyphosate with cancer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.