Bayer reaches $6.9 million settlement with New York over Roundup weed killer safety concerns
NEW YORK -- Two companies that sell top brands of household weed killer will pay $6.9 million for allegedly making false and misleading claims regarding the safety of their products as part of a settlement with the New York attorney general's office announced on Thursday.
Monsanto, an agrochemical company, and its parent company Bayer CropScience LP allegedly claimed in advertising that their Roundup consumer products were safe and nontoxic, despite their products containing glyphosate, which can be toxic to honeybees and butterflies as well as aquatic animals, according to the settlement.
The companies falsely claimed in advertising that their Roundup products "won't harm anything but weeds," and "do not pose a threat to the health of animal wildlife," state Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
Those claims breached a previous settlement the New York state Office of the Attorney General reached with Monsanto about two decades ago, in which Monsanto agreed to stop making unsubstantiated claims regarding the safety of Roundup products that contain the herbicide.
"Pesticides can cause serious harm to the health of our environment, and pose a deadly threat to wildlife, including pollinators and other species vital to agriculture," said James in a statement. "It is essential that pesticide companies — even and especially the most powerful ones — are honest with consumers about the dangers posed by their products so that they can be used responsibly."
Email messages left for Bayer were not immediately returned.
The millions of dollars that Bayer and Monsanto will pay to the New York attorney general's office will go toward remedying the impacts of toxic pesticides on the environment. The settlement also requires the companies to immediately remove or discontinue any advertisements that represent Roundup products containing glyphosate as harmless, nontoxic or free from risk to pollinators and other wildlife.
Bayer has faced thousands of lawsuits over the years under claims that weed killer Roundup causes cancer. The chemical they use in their products, glyphosate, also came under intense scrutiny after the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization, classified it as a "probable human carcinogen" in 2015.