Bayer Statement on Filing of En Banc Brief in Carson

Bayer today issued the following statement on the filing of the company’s en banc brief in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Carson: 

“The company believes the full Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals should affirm the district court’s ruling that state-based failure-to-warn claims different from or in addition to EPA’s science-based label, like those in this case, are expressly preempted by federal law under FIFRA. A state-required cancer warning would deviate from Roundup™’s EPA-approved labeling, render the product misbranded, and require the company to make a label change that would be contrary to the consistent conclusions of EPA’s scientific assessments for more than four decades.

“Further, the plaintiff’s attempt to enforce a state-based claim suffers from impossibility preemption since it would be impossible for the company to comply with both state and federal requirements when a conflict between the two exists. Since EPA has exercised its statutory authority to determine that a cancer warning would be false and misleading in violation of FIFRA, a state cannot demand that a company violate federal law by including one.

“Bayer continues to stand fully behind its Roundup™ products, as the weight of scientific evidence and the conclusions of expert regulators worldwide continue to support the safety of glyphosate-based herbicides and that they are not carcinogenic.”