Cory Booker pitches bill to allow lawsuits against pesticide makers over ‘toxic products’

Cory Booker on Thursday introduced legislation that would create a federal “right of action”, allowing people to sue pesticide makers such as Bayer and Syngenta, and others, for allegedly causing health issues such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

The Pesticide Injury Accountability Act would “ensure that pesticide manufacturers can be held responsible for the harm caused by their toxic products”, according to a summary of the bill. The legislation would be amended to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1972 (FIFRA).

If passed, the law would turn the tables on efforts by Bayer and a coalition of agricultural organizations as they push for state-by-state legislation blocking individuals from being able to file lawsuits accusing the companies of failing to warn of the risks of their products. The industry has also been pushing for federal preemptive protections against litigation.

So far, two states – Georgia and North Dakota – have passed what critics call “liability shield” laws. The laws essentially declare that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has oversight of pesticide labeling and state laws cannot permit companies to be held liable for failing to go beyond what the EPA requires in warning customers of potential risks.

Booker’s proposed law would not invalidate the state laws, but would give individuals an alternative - the right to bring their injury claims in federal courts if they can’t bring them in state courts.

“Rather than providing a liability shield so that foreign corporations are allowed to poison the American people, Congress should instead … ensure that these chemical companies can be held accountable in federal court for the harm caused by their toxic products,” Booker said in a statement accompanying the announcement of the bill.

So far, 17 environmental, public health and consumer groups have endorsed the measure, including leaders in the Make America Health Again (Maha) movement.

Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America and a supporter of Booker’s legislation, said it is “unconscionable that corporations are pushing our elected officials to manipulate laws that protect their profits over the health and safety of Americans”. She noted that many pesticides used widely in the US are banned in other countries because of their health risks.

The summary of the bill names both Germany-based Bayer and the Chinese-owned Syngenta as key targets and says they and others are seeking “liability shields because they know the harm their products have already caused”.

Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 and inherited a mass of lawsuits involving close to 200,000 plaintiffs in the United States alone, all alleging that the company should have warned users that its glyphosate-based weed killing products, such as the popular Roundup brand, could cause cancer. The company has already paid out billions of dollars in settlements and jury awards, but still faces roughly 67,000 lawsuits.

Likewise, Syngenta is facing several thousand lawsuits from people alleging that its paraquat weed killing products cause Parkinson’s disease and that Syngenta should have warned users of evidence that chronic exposure could cause the incurable brain disease. The company has so far paid out well over $100m to settle cases before they go to trial, and is attempting to solidify a broad settlement of the majority of the cases.

Bayer and its allies argue that their pesticide products, which are widely used in farming, are not only safe but are necessary for food production. Costly lawsuits jeopardize the availability of pesticides for agriculture, they say.

Bayer did not respond to a request for comment on Booker’s proposed legislation.

Syngenta said Booker’s bill “targets American food security” and that farmers do not deserve an “attack on the products they rely on”. The company said American agriculture is “highly regulated, productive and safe”, and that its paraquat products specifically, have not been shown to cause Parkinson’s disease.

This story is co-published with the New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group