The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker
Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake
Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL
CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. The DVDs will be shown at Homewood Friends
Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21218, usually on the First
Friday. After the peace vigil, there will be a potluck dinner. At 7:15
PM, from September through December, a DVD will be shown with a discussion to
follow. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. The
series theme is CAN WE HAVE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE?
On Fri., Oct. 2 see CRUDE
(USA, 2009, 100 min.), directed by Joe Berlinger. It is a documentary which
follows a two-year portion of an ongoing class action lawsuit against the
Chevron Corporation in Ecuador. The film follows the progress during 2006 and
2007 of a $27 billion legal case brought against the Chevron Corporation
following the drilling of the Lago Agrio oil field, a case described by
activists as an “Amazon Chernobyl.” The plaintiffs of the class action lawsuit
are 30,000 Ecuadorians living in the Amazonian rainforest who claim their
ancestral homeland has been polluted by the oil industry. Contact Max at
410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.
Chow writes: "Two separate U.S. agricultural
workers have slapped lawsuits against Monsanto, alleging that Roundup - the
agribusiness giant's flagship herbicide - caused their cancers, and that the
company 'falsified data' and 'led a prolonged campaign of misinformation' to
convince the public, farm workers and government agencies about the safety of
the product."
Farmworkers pick red peppers on a farm in California's Central Valley. (photo: Reuters)
Monsanto Sued by Farm Workers Claiming Roundup Caused
Their Cancers
By
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
01 October 15
Two separate U.S. agricultural workers have slapped
lawsuits against Monsanto, alleging that Roundup—the agribusiness giant’s
flagship herbicide—caused their cancers, and that the company “falsified data”
and “led a prolonged campaign of misinformation” to convince the public, farm
workers and government agencies about the safety of the product.
The first suit, Enrique Rubio v. Monsanto Company, comes
from Enrique Rubio, a 58-year-old former field worker who worked in
California, Texas and Oregon. According to Reuters, he was
diagnosed with bone cancer in 1995, and believes it stemmed from exposure
to Monsanto’s widely popular weedkiller and other pesticides that he sprayed on
cucumber, onion and other vegetable crops. Rubio’s case was filed in U.S.
District Court in Los Angeles on Sept. 22.
That same day, a similar lawsuit, Fitzgerald v. Monsanto Company,
was filed in federal court in New York by 64-year-old Judi Fitzgerald, who
was diagnosed with leukemia in 2012. She claims that her exposure to
Roundup at the horticultural products company she worked for in
the 1990s led to her diagnosis.
The plaintiffs have accused the company of
falsifying the safety of the product and putting people at risk.
Fitzgerald’s suit states:
“Monsanto assured the public
that Roundup was harmless. In order to prove this, Monsanto championed
falsified data and attacked legitimate studies that revealed its dangers.
Monsanto led a prolonged campaign of misinformation to convince government
agencies, farmers and the general population that Roundup was safe.”
The main ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, was listed as a possible human
carcinogen six months ago by the International Agency for Research
on Cancer, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization.
One of Rubio’s attorneys expects more lawsuits against
the company, which is the world’s leading producer of glyphosate, will follow.
“I believe there will be hundreds of lawsuits brought
over time,” said attorney Robin Greenwald, who brought the case.
Monsanto has furiously denied these claims and says
its products are safe.
“Decades of experience within agriculture and
regulatory reviews using the most extensive worldwide human health databases
ever compiled on an agricultural product contradict the claims in the suit
which will be vigorously defended,” spokeswoman Charla Lord told Reuters.
The agricultural and biotech company is battling
a string of negative health and safety accusations.
Earlier this month, California’s Environmental
Protection Agency issued plans to list
glyphosate as known to cause cancer.
Additionally, an appeals court
in Lyon, France upheld a 2012 ruling against Monsanto, in which the company was found guilty
of the chemical poisoning of a farmer named Paul François. Monsanto plans to
appeal the decision to a higher court.
And we
let them spray, & poison, our farmland? RT @prabalgurung: French Court - Monsanto
Guilty of Chemical Poisoning http://ecowatch.com/2015/09/11/monsanto-guilty-chemical-poisoning/ …
C 2015
Reader Supported News
Donations
can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment