Farmers ‘very worried’ as US pesticide firms push to bar cancer diagnoses lawsuits Pesticide-backed proposed law that opponents call ‘Cancer Gag Act’ pits Iowa farm groups against each other.
The fight is particularly fierce now in Iowa, where opponents call the pesticide-backed proposed law the “Cancer Gag Act”, due to high levels of cancer in Iowa that many fear are linked to the state’s large agricultural use of pesticides.
Bayer said in a statement that the state laws would not prevent anyone from suing pesticide makers, though they would ensure that any pesticide registered with the EPA and sold with an EPA-approved label would “satisfy requirements for health and safety warnings”.
Our farmers feel that if they have injuries or illnesses due to their use of a pesticide they should have access to the courts,” said Aaron Lehman, an Iowa corn and soybean farmer who is president of the Iowa Farmers Union.
The actions in the states come alongside a simultaneous push for changes in federal law that would in effect shield companies from lawsuits brought by people claiming they developed cancers or other diseases due to their use of pesticides.
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