Those of you that keep track of the issues relating to glyphosate, might be aware that a terminally ill cancer patient from California is suing Monsanto that his exposure to glyphosate gave him the cancer. This is the first of its kind court case, from what I gather from the news.

The man, Mr. Dewayne Johnson, was a school groundskeeper, who used Roundup (glyphosate) up to twenty times a year for many years, working as a pest manager for a county school system. He is dying of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that starts in the lymphatic system and is rooted in the body producing too many abnormal white blood cells.

His attorney claims to represent more than 2,000 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma sufferers who used Roundup extensively. Mr. Johnson’s case is the first to go on trial because he is nearing death.

Now, this is what I have to say on all this.

While I personally feel sad and horrified that so many people that used glyphosate in the US are known to suffer from this form of cancer, I have strong misgiving about such court cases. First, my understanding is that in a court, a person, or an organization, is to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

And in this and all other cases, there is no absolute scientific proof, far as I can guess, that the unfortunate people got their cancer definitively from glyphosate and not for some other reason. And in absence of such definitive proof, glyphosate, and along with it Monsanto, is going to go scot free.

I know about the IARC report, from World Health Organization, listing glyphosate as a “probable” carcinogen. I am also aware of other reports that state the opposite, i.e. glyphosate is “unlikely” to be carcinogenic. All these, to me, as well as to the courts, are “opinions” and do not prove either way, if the litigant did or did not get cancer from glyphosate.

Mr. Dewayne Johnson, contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma from handling glyphosate, and is suing Monsanto.

The proof, in my view, can only be established in a proper carcinogenicity test by a group of research scholars using proper lab facilities and using lab animals exposed to measured doses of glyphosate and their health parameters compared with identical animals that are not exposed to glyphosate.

I know that Monsanto conducted many such tests. I know Monsanto submitted these test results to regulatory authorities of all Governments that have approved the use of glyphosate as a herbicide. I also know that all those governments are hiding these reports and have not made them public, which makes its approval illegal, in my view.

Further, I do not know of any country or any research group that is conducting carcinogenicity or other safety tests on glyphosate. I know of Dr. Seralini’s work in France which involves Roundup and not exclusively glyphosate. I do not know of any that did such tests specifically with glyphosate except in isolated cases such as Dr. Carrasco in Argentina.

The best way to solve this issue, as far as scientific proof and law in concerned, is first of all to force all government regulatory authorities, starting with EPA of the US and Health Ministry of Canada, to make public all safety tests on glyphosate, and then to ask independent experts to review and scrutinize these reports. Further, all nations should initiate independent tests on safety of glyphosate, irrespective of whatever the Monsanto reports are suspected to be hiding.

And lastly, whenever there is a mention of cancer, the public and news media starts hyperventilating.  But glyphosate can make you ill and kill you a thousand different ways apart from cancer of the lymphatic system. Why is dying of cancer any worse than dying from Kidney failure or having your brain turned into a vegetable?

Apart from demanding disclosure of safety records, and demanding independent study of glyphosate’s safety, there is another way – public pressure on the political system. After all, in a democracy, the people are supposed to be masters of their destiny and should decided if they will or will not allow glyphosate to be present in their food and environment, irrespective of what Monsanto, the pesticide traders or the industrial farmers might say. But for that to happen, people have to do something real, like performing hard duties of a citizen, and not just “sharing” stuff on Facebook.

I have been fighting a lone and so far unsatisfactory battle single handed with the Canadian government regarding safety records on glyphosate. I say single handed because because I got no real support. I am itching to go back home to Canada so I can start badgering our do-nothing politicians on this. I would have loved to see more Canadians follow suit in their own capacity, and hope that perhaps some day it will become the main talking point on elections and a politicians ability to win or lose may also hinge on his stand on glyphosate. 

Anyhow I have succeeded in making at least a dozen elected politicians, from municipal to federal, conscious of the fact that I am hell bent on spoiling their election campaign because they either refuse to push back at glyphosate, or prefers to sit on the fence. Also, I have forced at least one federal election (MP) candidate to withdraw from the race on account of me raising enough stink about his history of working for a firm that regularly sprayed glyphosate over British Columbian forests.

My parting advise to folks sharing these articles on social media is – spend less time on passing around this kind of news and more time on pushing back at rogue politicians, whose actions are the main reason why Mr. Johnson and hundreds of thousands of others are suffering today around the world because of glyphosate, as are a wide swath of our flora and fauna.

I am quite amazed at the degree of ignorance on glyphosate, not just among the general public, but also among people that have been engaged in fighting GMO for a generation, as well as farm workers that have been using it for a generation.

There is also a report from Sri Lanka that tea garden workers that used glyphosate as weedkiller are suspected to have contracted Esophageal cancer. Clearly, farm workers and everybody using glyphosate as a weed killer around the world, should seriously be keeping track of not just the court case of Mr. Johnson, but also be vocal activists to demand safety test and data on glyphosate, and as long as such data is kept hidden and such tests are not being conducted, to refuse to use it and insist that glyphosate be banned from their world.

I am right now in India, where awareness on glyphosate is as abysmal as it is elsewhere. Glyphosate has penetrated deep into this country with or without Monsanto, both legally and illegally. Farm workers are taught to use the term “dava” or “oushad” meaning “medicine” instead of “poison” when they refer to glyphosate. It should be illegal to use the term ‘medicine’ for weed killer poisons like glyphosate.

My name is Tony Mitra. This is what I feel and I am going to include these issues when and if I talk to people here in India on this topic. Thank you.