Who's Afraid of Roundup? | Issues in Science and Technology

Who's Afraid of Roundup? | Issues in Science and Technology

• In the age of “Facebook science,” the weight of evidence must compete with powerful popular narratives. 

"Can common sense help?
In May 2019, a California jury awarded $2 billion to a husband and wife who claimed that the weed-killer Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The defendant in the suit was Bayer AG, which had recently acquired Monsanto, Roundup’s manufacturer.
Crucial in determining the judgment was Alameda County Superior Court judge Winifred Smith’s denial of a request by Bayer’s lawyers to share with the jury the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recent determination that the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, is not carcinogenic and poses no risk to public health when used as directed. 
“What is the relevance?” the judge is reported to have asked.
Instead, the judge allowed the plaintiffs’ lawyers to base their case on the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) 2015 determination that glyphosate is a “probable carcinogen.” Deprived of the opportunity to hear any countervailing evidence, the jury found for the plaintiffs.
...I realize that complex issues of risk and the environment create a near-impenetrable thicket of uncertainties, values, interests, and competing experts’ views of the evidence.
But sometimes the clear weight of evidence coupled with a dose of common sense is enough to show what’s right, even if that means going against the tide of popular outrage.
Glyphosate is a boon to agriculture and humanity...
Geoffrey Kabat is a cancer epidemiologist and the author of Getting Risk Right: Understanding the Science of Elusive Health Risks."