Iowa Senate passes bill shielding pesticide companies from warning label lawsuits

DES MOINES — Agriculture chemical companies would be protected from lawsuits over warning labeling on their products to inform consumers of health risks under a bill passed by the Iowa Senate Wednesday.

The legislation comes as opponents argue the bill would shield Bayer, the company that owns glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, which is used by farmers across the state, from liability over failure to warn about the product’s health risks like cancer.

Bayer is backing Senate File 394 alongside similar bills being considered in Idaho and Missouri. The bill would shield Bayer from lawsuits claiming the company failed to warn consumers of health risks if the product label complies with federal labeling requirements. Bayer argues that since the Environmental Protection Agency has determined glyphosate is not carcinogenic, the company should not be required to put cancer warnings on Roundup.

Although the EPA has cleared glyphosate of posing cancer risks, a federal district court requested the agency review that decision in 2022, according to Reuters. The International Agency for Research on Cancer determined it is "probably carcinogenic to humans."

Iowa has the fastest-growing rate of new cancers and ranks second highest in cancer rates compared to other states, according to the Iowa Cancer Registry.

Lawmakers voted 25-21 with six Republicans joining all Democrats to vote against it.

The Iowa Senate passed a similar bill in 2024 by a 30-19 vote, primarily along party lines, but it was halted after the House did not take it up. This year’s bill now heads to the House.

Bayer has faced around 167,000 lawsuits from individuals claiming the company failed to warn them about the health risks of their products, costing the company billions in litigation expenses.

One of the largest settlements happened Monday when a jury in Georgia ordered Bayer to pay nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who claimed Roundup, caused his cancer, according to the Associated Press.

Republican Sen. Mike Bousselot, of Ankeny, the bill’s sponsor, said failure to warn lawsuits are unfairly targeting pesticide companies, which could lead them to stop producing products in Iowa, adding that there is no definitive link of glyphosate causing cancer.

“What we do if we allow lawsuits like this to continue to go forward is we are forcing … more than 20 companies who produce glyphosate today in that terrible choice between breaking federal law so they can avoid crippling lawsuits or to continue to go forward and get sued into oblivion,” Bousselot said. “That terrible choice between a rock and a hard place where they're at absolutely and ultimately going to choose just not to do it anymore.”

Bayer purchased Monsanto, the company that created Roundup, in 2018. Roundup is primarily produced in Muscatine and Bayer has multiple crop science plants across Iowa.

Democratic Sen. William Dotzler, of Waterloo, said claims that glyphosate isn’t carcinogenic are false, adding that lawmakers should protect Iowa farmers over large companies.

Democratic Sen. Janice Weiner of Iowa City, who is the Senate minority leader, pointed out Bayer’s ad campaign launched in this year Iowa advocating for the continued availability of glyphosate in the state.

“Relentless and expensive advertising,” Weiner said. “Billboards, pop up ads, half and full page ads in newspapers, including ads thanking legislators. If this all sounds familiar, it should. It's the very same playbook the tobacco industry used for years.”

Bousselot responded to Democratic concerns that the legislation would block lawsuits against pesticide companies by introducing an amendment that he says highlights legal avenues individuals can take aside from failure to warn when suing pesticide companies, including negligence, strict liability, product liability, fraud, misrepresentation or breach of warranty.

“It is simply saying this is about a very narrow idea, that if a company follows the federal law that they're required to follow to sell the product, they follow it to the 'T,' that you shouldn't sue them for having put the wrong label on that,” Bousselot said.

However, Democratic Sen. Matt Blake, of Urbandale, said without failure to warn lawsuits, those experiencing pesticide-related health effects would have no effective legal pathways. Blake argued that legal routes, including suing over negligence, strict liability and action for warrant claim that would still be allowed under the legislation would not be sufficient in suing pesticide companies for injury.

“Failure to warn is the root of the product's liability claim,” Blake said. “The other claims stem from this root cause. If the state deems a warning label to be deemed sufficient, it kills the root cause and no other causes can grow from it.”

A similar bill has not been introduced in the Iowa House.