WASHINGTON -- Most Americans are worried about pesticides and oppose shielding companies from lawsuits over hazardous products, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted ahead of Supreme Court arguments involving Bayer's Roundup weedkiller.
President Donald Trump's administration is backing Bayer as the German company goes before the top U.S. judicial body on Monday in a bid to sharply limit lawsuits claiming that Roundup causes cancer. A decision in the company's favor could avert billions of dollars in damages.
The poll, based on responses from 4,557 U.S. adults nationwide, highlights the administration's risks in backing Bayer. It found that 78 percent of respondents -- including 81 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of independents -- are concerned about pesticide use in food crops.
In addition, 63 percent of poll respondents -- including 71 percent of Democrats, 57 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of independents -- said they oppose protecting companies from lawsuits when they sell cancer-causing products, even if the company warns about the risk.
Bayer is seeking to shut down tens of thousands of lawsuits accusing it of failing to warn users that the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, has been linked to cancer.
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, classified the chemical as "probably carcinogenic to humans." But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not determined that glyphosate is a carcinogen.
The widespread concern about pesticides revealed in the poll, along with opposition to corporate liability shields, shows a potential vulnerability for Republicans in the November congressional elections. Trump's party is seeking to retain its narrow majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Among other issues, Republicans hope the administration's focus on matters such as improving American diets -- part of the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement among Trump supporters -- will help them in the midterms.
But Trump's position in the Bayer case has alienated some of his Make America Healthy Again supporters who are concerned about pesticides. Some of them are planning a rally outside the court building on Monday.
Product warning labels
Bayer is appealing a jury verdict in Missouri state court that awarded $1.25 million to a plaintiff named John Durnell who said he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma after years of exposure to glyphosate in Roundup. Glyphosate is one of the most commonly applied weedkillers in U.S. agriculture.
A central issue in the case is whether U.S. consumers can sue under state law for inadequate safety warnings when federal authorities already have approved a product's safety label.
Bayer contends that consumers should not be able to sue it under state law for failing to warn about any Roundup cancer risk because the EPA has found no such risk and requires no such warning. Bayer has argued that federal law does not allow it to add any warning to the product beyond the EPA-approved label.
The Trump administration, in a legal filing to the Supreme Court, agreed with Bayer's argument and said federal law preempts the state laws that have been used to bring many of the cases against Bayer.
Some state chapters of the Farm Bureau, the largest U.S. farmer lobby group, said in a brief to the Supreme Court that a ruling against Bayer would harm farmers because the company could decide to stop selling the product due to liability risk.
Broad concern among Americans
In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 79 percent of respondents expressed concern about impacts to their health from chemicals or food additives, and from microplastics in drinking water. The poll, which was conducted online from April 15-20, had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump appointed last year, has been promoting the administration’s actions to restrict food dyes, promote healthy eating and other health policies in pre-midterm rallies around the country.
Trump and top White House officials met with leaders of the MAHA movement on April 9 and discussed their concerns about pesticides, according to Kelly Ryerson, co-executive director of advocacy group American Regeneration, who attended the meetings.
Ryerson, who posts on social media under the moniker “The Glyphosate Girl,” said she told the officials that glyphosate is a significant issue to MAHA voters and that continued support for Bayer could compromise Republican votes in the midterms.
MAHA leaders also have criticized an executive order Trump signed in February aimed at boosting domestic glyphosate production, and said that too would risk midterm support.
Ryerson, who is scheduled to be among the speakers at the Monday rally, said Trump “has a full understanding of how important the MAHA vote is to midterms.”