EPA Official Accused of Helping Monsanto ‘Kill’ Cancer Study
- Monsanto is fighting suits claiming it hid Roundup health risk
- ‘I should get a medal,’ regulator allegedly bragged to company
Bottles of Roundup weed killer move along conveyors on the production line at the herbicide manufacturing facility operated by Monsanto Co. in Antwerp, Belgium, on Tuesday, June 14, 2016.
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/BloombergThe Environmental Protection Agency official who was in charge of evaluating the cancer risk of Monsanto Co.’s Roundup allegedly bragged to a company executive that he deserved a medal if he could kill another agency’s investigation into the herbicide’s key chemical.
The boast was made during an April 2015 phone conversation, according to farmers and others who say they’ve been sickened by the weed killer. After leaving his job as a manager in the EPA’s pesticide division last year, Jess Rowland has become a central figure in more than 20 lawsuits in the U.S. accusing the company of failing to warn consumers and regulators of the risk that its glyphosate-based herbicide can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.