American Cancer Victims Warn Europeans About Monsanto

Teri McCall and her husband Jack used Monsanto’s ‘killer’ weed killer RoundUp on their family farm in California where they grew avocados, thinking it was a safe substance, DW reports.

Shortly after their 40th wedding anniversary, Jack lost a hard-fought battle with lymphoma, which his wife blames on glyphosate. The family dog that followed Jack around the farm five years earlier also fell ill with the same disease. McCall believes their misfortune is proof that Monsanto is concealing the fact that the chemical they use is hazardous to health.

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After her husband’s death, she traveled to Brussels to convince European leaders not to make the same mistake as the U.S., which allowed the use of Monsanto’s pesticides.

– I believe Europeans need to be warned. They are human beings, McCall said.

However, the European Commission has proposed renewing the permits for the use of glyphosate for another 10 years based on the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) assessment that glyphosate does not cause cancer.

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The president of the European agricultural union Copa-Cogeca, Joachim Rukwied, supports this decision. He believes that a ban on glyphosate threatens competitiveness in agriculture and food safety in the EU, and that a ban should not be considered an option until there is concrete scientific evidence linking glyphosate to cancer.

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However, attorney Brent Wisner doubts the credibility of the EFSA study. He represents McCall and 500 other cancer-affected plaintiffs in the U.S. in a lawsuit against Monsanto. Wisner stated that corporations intentionally hide evidence about the safety of glyphosate and try to influence the outcomes of scientific studies. Monsanto is compared to the tobacco industry, which for years spread misinformation that smoking tobacco is good for health.

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Monsanto’s lobbyists are also a cause for concern despite being banned from entering the European Parliament after the company refused to participate in hearings based on allegations that they exerted illegal pressure on European regulatory bodies.

According to a survey conducted in April 2016, two-thirds of Europeans support a ban on glyphosate. A lot is at stake for Monsanto. If the use of glyphosate is banned in Europe, the company could lose a significant market share of agricultural chemicals sold in the European Union.