A federal appeals court Thursday handed Monsanto a win in its long fight against claims that the company has a duty to warn customers about health risks from its popular Roundup weedkiller.
The decision from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed claims from Pennsylvania landscaper David Schaffner that Monsanto had an obligation under state law to place a cancer warning on Roundup’s label. Schaffner was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2006 after years of working with the weedkiller on the job and on his personal property.
Chief Judge Michael Chagares, who led the court’s unanimous opinion, found that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) requires nationwide uniformity in pesticide labeling and bars states from diverging from those standards. In the registration process for Roundup, EPA approved labels for the product that did not include a cancer warning.
“[W]e conclude that the alleged state-law duty to include the Cancer Warning on Roundup’s label imposes requirements that are different from those imposed under FIFRA, and that it is therefore preempted by FIFRA,” wrote Chagares, a George W. Bush appointee.
