The Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law when they approved Bayer’s XtendiMax dicamba-based herbicide system and revoked the approval of that product. They also canceled registrations for the additional dicamba-based herbicides, like BASF’s Engenia and Corteva Agriscience’s FeXapan. Sales of the herbicide have been stopped, and farmers planning to use the system this year will now be unable to.

Dicamba has been the subject of several lawsuits, including a $265 million verdict against Bayer earlier this year, due to the herbicide drifting onto nd damaging other plants when it’s applied. The decision by the federal court determined that the EPA underestimated the extent of dicamba’s drift when they approved Bayer’s (then Monsanto) XtendiMax.

We hold that the EPA substantially understated risks that it acknowledged and failed entirely to acknowledge other risks.”

Judge William Fletcher

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The petition was brought to the Court of Appeals by the National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Pesticide Action Network North America. The court’s verdict is a big win for environmental groups and farmers with pending cases against Bayer.

This is a massive victory that will protect people and wildlife from uses of a highly toxic pesticide that never should have been approved by the EPA. The fact that the Trump EPA approved these uses of dicamba despite its well-documented record of damaging millions of acres of farmland, tree groves and gardens highlights how tightly the pesticide industry controls EPA’s pesticide-approval process.”

Lori Ann Burd, Center for Biological Diversity

The decision also comes at a time that the current administration is strategically dismantling EPA policies designed to protect citizens and the environment from big business pollution.

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Sources:

• U.S. court blocks sales of Bayer weed killer in United States – Reuters
• Court overturns EPA approval of popular herbicide made by Monsanto – The Guardian

For those looking for that perfect pollinator plant to grow, look no further than hemp. While Cannabis sativa (industrial hemp) lacks the nectar that bees typically collect, a study published in the journal Environmental Entomology found that the pollen produced by male plants was able to attract up to 16 different bee species.

Because of its temporally unique flowering phenology (the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena), hemp has the potential to provide a critical nutritional resource to a diverse community of bees during a period of floral scarcity and thereby may help to sustain agroecosystem-wide pollination services for other crops in the landscape.”

Environmental Entomology

Taller hemp plants were more successful than the shortest plants in attracting bees, drawing in 17 times more of the insects. This is likely due to the increased pollen production of taller plants and their increased visibility.

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Sources:

• Bees Absolutely Love Cannabis and It Could Help Restore Their Populations – Vegnum
• Environmental Entomology Study Confirms Bees Love Hemp – PSNet

Bayer AG has reached verbal agreements with 50,000 to 85,000 plaintiffs in Roundup cancer lawsuits in the United States. The agreements have not yet been signed, and some of them will need the approval of California Judge Vince Chhabria, the judge responsible for reducing an $80 million award to $25 million. Chhabria suspended a trial scheduled for March 23rd without setting a new date, and brought in settlement negotiator Kenneth Feinberg.

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There are talks with various lawyers around the nation who have significant inventories of Roundup cases. I’m optimistic we can reach a comprehensive settlement of this litigation.”

Kenneth Feinberg, mediator

These negotiations represent a significant chunk of the 125,000 of the Roundup lawsuits in California and Missouri (where Monsanto headquarters were located), though Bayer has only acknowledged about half of those. Settlements are preferable to high-exposure jury trials, like the three California cases last year that resulted in significant awards against the pharmaceutical and life sciences company. Roundup litigation has plagued the German company since it purchased Monsanto in 2018.

Bayer has said official settlements will likely be announced in June.

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Sources:

In news that should surprise no one, the Trump Administration’s decision to walk back the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement of environmental regulations has resulted in a significant increase in Great Lakes pollution from corporations. The Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) recently released a report that examined clean water regulation enforcement and found that there was a decrease in compliance cases initiated, civil penalties for violations, and the staff needed to properly protect the Great Lakes. The EPA has also been subject to significant yearly budget cuts, though the agency isn’t even spending all the money congress has given it for enforcement.

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As enforcement has trended downward, compliance has worsened. In 2019, there were 62% more facilities in significant noncompliance with the Clean Water Act, when compared to the average number of facilities in significant noncompliance between FY (fiscal year) 2012 to FY 2017.

Environmental Law and Policy Center

The numbers from FY 2012 to FY 2019 are incredibly upsetting. The number of major facilities in serious non-compliance with environmental regulations has risen from 122 to 211. That increase is the direct inverse of compliance enforcement. As non-compliance has risen, compliance enforcement has floundered.

• The number of compliance cases opened has gone from 340 to 208, while case closures have gone from 351 to 205.
• The amount of penalties assessed has gone from a high of $1.4 million (2013) to a low of $303,000 (2018).
• The compliance enforcement budget has shrunk from $257,000 to $240,000.
• The staff assigned to the Great Lakes region has declined from 1,249 employees to 940.

Government officials continually claim companies will follow the environmental regulations on their own, but the numbers are clear. Corporations aren’t following the rules, and they have no incentive to do so as long as it’s cheaper to pay someone to look the other way than it is to do clean up after themselves.

Sources:

• Report: As EPA pulls back under Trump, serious pollution rises on Great Lakes – Detroit Free Press
• Under Trump, the EPA has cut back on enforcement of clean water laws in the Great Lakes Region – Chicago Tribune

A new study from the Plymouth Marine Institute in the U.K. has found that the amount of microplastics in our oceans is much higher than previously thought. Scientists trawled off the coast of Maine in the U.S. and the coast of Plymouth in the U.K. and used mesh nets in sizes of 100 microns (0.1mm), 333 microns and 500 microns. Scientists found 2.5 times more particles in the smallest 100-micron net than in the 333-micron nets usually used in microplastic studies. Both U.S. and U.K. coasts had similar results, which suggests that other, populated coasts would have similar results.

The estimate of marine microplastic concentration could currently be vastly underestimated…Using an extrapolation, we suggest microplastic concentrations could exceed 3,700 particles per cubic meter – that’s far more than the number of zooplankton you would find…”

Professor Pennie Lindeque, Plymouth Marine Institute

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The majority of microplastics found in this study were textiles fibers from ropes, nets, synthetic clothing, and other plastic laden fibers. It’s unclear how many microplastics are in the ocean (scientists estimated there were from 15 and 51 trillion individual pieces in the oceans in 2014), but it’s clear that we haven’t even begun to truly measure those numbers.

Italian scientists studying the Mediterranean diet have found evidence that the quality of your food matters when it comes to health benefits. Researchers from Mediterranean Neurological Institute (I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed) released their findings in 2017 after studying more than 18,000 men and women since 2005. The Molisani study saw that wealthier participants experienced a greater reduction of cardiovascular risks.

Given a comparable adherence to the Mediterranean diet, the most advantaged groups were more likely to report a larger number of indices of high quality diet as opposed to people with low socioeconomic status…For example, within those reporting an optimal adherence to the Mediterranean diet (as measured by a score comprising fruits and nuts, vegetables, legumes, cereals, fish, fats, meat, dairy products and alcohol intake) people with high income or higher educational level consumed products richer in antioxidants and polyphenols, and had a greater diversity in fruit and vegetables choice. We have also found a socioeconomic gradient in the consumption of whole-grain products and in the preferred cooking methods. These substantial differences in consuming products belonging to Mediterranean diet lead us to think that quality of foods may be as important for health as quantity and frequency of intake”

Licia Iacoviello, head of the Laboratory of Nutritional and Molecular Epidemiology at I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed

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Here is yet another insidious way lower-income people are disadvantaged.

The Mediterranean diet is characterized by a large quantity of olive oil, unrefined grains, legumes, and diverse fruits and vegetables. It includes moderate amounts of fish, dairy, and wine. In addition, not all items are created equal – cheaper versions of things (like canned vegetables as opposed to fresh) do not contain the same nutritional makeup as fresher, more expensive options. Lower-income people are less likely to be able to afford the quality and diversity of products needed to reap the benefits of the Mediterranean diet.

Johnson and Johnson announced on Tuesday that they would no longer be selling its talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada. In an official statement, the company cited decreasing sales due to misinformation as the reason for the discontinuation.

Demand for talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in North America has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising.”

Johnson and Johnson

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The company’s talc-based baby powder has been the subject of more than 19,000 lawsuits and intense scrutiny after investigative reports, trial testimonies, internal company records, and other evidence found that Johnson and Johnson knew the product contained asbestos. The evidence found tests proving small amounts of asbestos were in the company’s baby powder from 1971 to as recently as the early 2000s. There is also a federal criminal investigation into Johnson and Johnson’s lack of transparency in regard to the asbestos issue.

Johnson and Johnson’s decision to drop talc-based baby powder from its North American profile has also been influenced by COVID-19 concerns. The company is choosing to focus on more high-demand in an effort to make social distancing easier, although they are still planning to sell the talc-based baby powder in other markets internationally.