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16 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 1 (2025-2026)

handle is hein.journals/wflron16 and id is 1 raw text is: ROUNDING OUT THE ROUNDUP LITIGATION: EXPRESS PREEMPTION UNDER FIFRA INTRODUCTION Roundup, a consumer herbicide used to kill weeds, has been the subject of extensive product liability litigation. Plaintiffs within these lawsuits allege that glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient, causes non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a lymphatic cancer, and that Roundup's manufacturers failed to warn the public about the cancer risks associated with glyphosate.1 In 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered glyphosate-based pesticides as approved for sale and distribution in the United States without a cancer warning and has since repeatedly concluded that glyphosate is not likely carcinogenic to humans.2 Nevertheless, since the International Agency for Research on Cancer's (IARC) 2015 finding that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic,3 approximately 192,000 lawsuits have been filed against Roundup's manufacturers, Monsanto and Bayer,4 alleging that Roundup and related pesticides containing glyphosate cause cancer.5 Of these claims, roughly 131,000 claims have been resolved or deemed to be ineligible, leaving more than 61,000 claims 1. In re Roundup Prods. Liab. Litig., 214 F. Supp. 3d 1346, 1347 (J.P.M.L. 2016). 2. Glyphosate, U.S. ENV'T PROT. AGENCY (May 9, 2025), https://perma.cc/J2FR-7HSW; see also Schaffner v. Monsanto Corp., 113 F.4th 364, 373 (3d Cir. 2024) (recounting history of EPA glyphosate evaluation); Nat'l Fam. Farm Coal. v. EPA, 966 F.3d 893, 905 (9th Cir. 2020). 3. INT'L AGENCY FOR RSCH. ON CANCER, WORLD HEALTH ORG., Q&A ON GLYPHOSPHATE 1 (Mar. 1, 2016), https://perma.cc/Z85E-6QXU. Expert agencies have conflicting opinions as to whether glyphosate has the potential to cause cancer. Although IARC has concluded that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans, other national and international agencies ... have reported that scientific evidence does not show that glyphosate causes cancer. Hardeman v. Monsanto Co., 997 F.3d 941, 951 (9th Cir. 2021). 4. Hannah Fingerhut & David A. Lieb, Bayer Backs Broadened Effort to Shield Popular Weedkiller from Claims It Failed to Warn of Cancer, ASSOCIATED PRESS (Feb. 10, 2025), https://apnews.com/article/bayer-roundup-glyphosate- pesticide-liability-cancer-7d7885e55e228fae8ed8ec7b207a65b8. Bayer acquired Monsanto through merger in 2018 and is a named defendant in the litigation. Bayer Closes Monsanto Acquisition, BAYER GLOB. (June 7, 2018), https://perma.cc/P3RT-KN4M. This Comment will collectively refer to both defendants as Monsanto. 5. Schaffner, 113 F.4th at 373-74 (citing In re Roundup Prods. Liab. Litig., 214 F. Supp. 3d at 1348-49); Managing the RoundupTM Litigation: Measures At- a-Glance, BAYER GLOB. (Aug. 22, 2025), https://perma.cc/3YMA-99CT. 1