Courtesy of Kentucky Lantern
FRANKFORT — A bill that critics say would block Kentuckians from suing pesticide companies for failing to warn of their products’ hazards narrowly passed the Republican-controlled House Tuesday over significant Republican opposition.
Senate Bill 199, sponsored by Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, would designate that the warning required under a federal law “shall be deemed a sufficient warning label” and fulfill a pesticide maker’s duty to warn consumers of hazards.
The plurality of Republicans supporting SB 199 characterized the legislation as a form of regulatory relief and support for Kentucky’s farmers, while Democrats warned it could shield pesticide companies from lawsuits by consumers who suffer harms, including cancer, from the products.
“We cannot make America healthy again if we make it illegal to hold the people making us sick accountable. Kentucky leads the nation in cancer. We should be leading the way in consumer protection, not leading the way in corporate immunity,” said Rep. Adam Moore, D-Lexington.
A state cancer needs assessment in 2021 found Kentucky led the nation in overall cancer incidence and mortality rates.
Rep. Ryan Bivens, R-Hodgenville, added an amendment to SB 199 limiting the bill’s protections from liability to only pesticides used in agriculture.
House Minority Floor Leader Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, right, listens to Rep. Ryan Bivens, R-Hodgenville, answer her question on Senate Bill 199. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer.
SB 199 passed 53-37 with more than a dozen Republicans joining the minority of Democrats in opposition. The Kentucky Senate would have to concur with changes made by the House before SB 199 is sent to Democratic Gov. Andy Behsear’s desk.
When the bill began to advance earlier this month, Howell, the sponsor, told lawmakers that “there have been a bunch of lawsuits that have come out on ‘failure to warn’ against the manufacturers of glyphosate.” Howell said his bill would still allow lawsuits when a “smoking gun” reveals a pesticide manufacturer hid a product’s harms.
Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto, is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling on whether federal law protects the company from thousands of lawsuits from people who claim its herbicide Roundup caused their cancer. Roundup contains glyphosate, a broad-use herbicide, that has been the subject of numerous lawsuits that allege the labeling failed to warn of cancer risks.
Farm industry groups including the Kentucky Farm Bureau support SB 199. Kyle Kelly, the director of the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s public affairs division, told the Senate Agriculture Committee in early March the bill “seeks to address a major concern among farmers regarding availability of crop protection tools that have been approved by the EPA and many on the market for decades.”
“Unfortunately, a study that was conducted by an international agency that did not use the same rigorous testing methods as our own federal government has led to thousands of lawsuits here domestically to the point that farmers were being told by suppliers and distributors that certain products could be removed from the American market,” Kelly said.
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015 found that the herbicide was “probably carcinogenic.”
Some Republicans echoed the sentiments of agriculture groups including House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, who’s a part owner of a farm supply center in Ballard County.
“All my life, we have been taught to fear — fear the EPA. They’re trying to run farmers out of business. We are desperate in agriculture right now. We just want to have the products that we need to feed you,” Rudy said.
Other Republicans on the House floor praised the changes made to SB 199 that limited its scope to agricultural pesticides, saying it alleviated their concerns about the bill. Audrey Ernstberger, a lobbyist for the environmental legal group Kentucky Resources Council, told the Lantern the change doesn’t go far enough to address core concerns with the bill.
“Farmers, ag workers will still be at risk” because the standard established in SB 199 does not “completely address disclosure of adverse health effects from overuse or cumulative exposure,” Ernstberger said.
“Federal labeling, which is largely based on the manufacturer information rather than independent government testing, often lags current science on neurological, endocrine, reproductive, and carcinogenic effects of pesticides,” Ernstberger said. “Scientific evidence shows that many widely used pesticides can affect children’s neurodevelopment, disrupt hormonal function, and contribute to chronic disease.”
She said those risks might not be captured by federal labeling, with states needing the flexibility to require warnings that meet the “evolving science” around a pesticide. She also said those injured because of inadequate warnings deserve to take their case to court.
Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, the co-chair of the Make America Healthy Again Kentucky task force established by the legislature, cited Kentucky’s No. 1 ranking for cancer and told his colleagues that the state “ought to be passing measures that make our citizens healthier.”
“I cannot in good conscience vote on a bill that I do not believe will do that,” Lockett said. “We ought to be fighting for our residents, fighting for our farmers at the same time, and fighting for the health of the commonwealth that consistently lags behind the rest of the nation.”
“We have to at some point begin to say that we are going to stand up and fight for the health of our citizens,” Lockett said.
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