*FYI* Information on those who need to know..is ROUNDUP really safe?
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P A N U P S
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Pesticide Action Network
North America
Updates Service
http://www.panna.org/panna/
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January 10, 1997
Monsanto Agrees to Change Ads and
EPA Fines Northrup King
Monsanto Co. agreed to change its advertising for glyphosate-
based products, including Roundup, in response to complaints
by the New York Attorney General's office that the ads were
misleading. Based on their investigation, the Attorney
General's office felt that the advertising inaccurately
portrayed Monsanto's glyphosate-containing products as safe
and as not causing any harmful effects to people or the
environment. According to the state, the ads also implied
that the risks of products such as Roundup are the same as
those of the active ingredient, glyphosate, and do not take
into account the possible risks associated with the product's
inert ingredients.
As part of the agreement, Monsanto will discontinue the use
of terms such as "biodegradable" and "environmentally
friendly" in all advertising of glyphosate-containing
products in New York state and will pay $50,000 toward the
state's costs of pursuing the case. The Attorney General has
been challenging the ads since 1991.
Monsanto maintains that it did not violate any federal, state
or local law and that its claims were "true and not
misleading in any way." The company states that they entered
into the agreement for settlement purposes only in order to
avoid costly litigation.
According to a 1993 report published by the School of Public
Health at the University of California, Berkeley, glyphosate
was the third most commonly-reported cause of pesticide
illness among agricultural workers. Another study from the
School of Public Health found that glyphosate was the most
commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape
maintenance workers. (Both studies were based on data
collected between 1984 and 1990.)
In the first nine months of 1996, Monsanto's worldwide
agrochemical sales increased by 21% to US$2.48 billion, due
largely to increased sales of Roundup.
EPA Fines Northrup King
Also in November 1996, Northrup King Co. agreed to pay a
US$165,200 fine to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) for importing, producing, selling and distributing an
unregistered pesticide P genetically engineered corn
containing Bacillus thurgiensis (Bt). This was EPA's first
legal action involving a genetically engineered plant
pesticide.
According to EPA, the company's activities violated the U.S.
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and
included failing to file with EPA the required paperwork for
importing the Bt corn, and producing the pesticide at eight
unregistered facilities during 1994-95.
Northrup King, a Sandoz Seeds subsidiary based in Minnesota,
maintains that they had been working with the EPA to obtain
registration for their Bt corn and expected approval last
spring. However, in order to have as much seed as possible to
sell to U.S. growers, the company shipped seed to Chile for
winter production and brought the increased volumes back to
the U.S. for packaging and sale. A company spokesperson
stated that the federal process took longer than expected,
and therefore Northrup King was in "technical violation" by
letting its production get ahead of registration. The
originally proposed fine of US$208,500 was reduced by 20%
because of what EPA officials called the company's
"cooperation and good faith efforts to come into compliance."
Northrup King's Bt corn, developed in collaboration with
Monsanto using its Yieldgard technology, was registered on
August 5, 1996, and the company has been selling seed to U.S.
farmers since then for next season's plantings. According to
reports, the company expected to sell out by the end of the
1996, and is projecting 500,000 to one million acres planted
with the company's seed by next spring.
Sources: Agrow: World Crop Protection News, November 15,
November 29 & December 13, 1996; EPA News Release, Region 5,
November 4, 1996; Minneapolis Star Tribune, November 7, 1996;
The Gene Exchange, December 1996; Preventing Pesticide-
related Illness in California Agriculture, William Pease, et
al., 1993; Pesticides in the Home and Community: Health risks
and policy alternatives, J.C. Robinson et al., 1994.
Contact: PANNA (see below).
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| Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) |
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| PANNA, 116 New Montgomery, #810, San Francisco, CA 94105 |
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