A federal appeals court rejected a 2020 Trump Administration determination that the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup was not harmful to humans, reopening thousands of claims from users who developed cancer after using the product, the Associated Press reports.
The active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, has been linked to an increased risk of contracting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. However, in 2020, two years after pharmaceutical giant Bayer bought Monsanto, the original manufacturer, the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency unexpectedly released a report claiming that all the scientific evidence that links glyphosate to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was erroneous and the product was perfectly safe.
Judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the Trump EPA finding “was not supported by substantial evidence.″ The court also found that the EPA shirked its responsibility to follow up on evidence that Roundup, the most-used herbicide in the world, did not impact animal species as it was supposed to examine under the Endangered Species Act.
The Biden EPA will allow Roundup to continue to be sold for the moment while it determines next steps in its investigation. Exposure to the herbicide to residential, commercial and agriculture users has been shown to be dangerous.