美国国家公共电台 NPR Safe Or Scary? The Shifting Reputation Of Glyphosate, AKA Roundup

Safe Or Scary? The Shifting Reputation Of Glyphosate, AKA Roundup

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Roundup is the most widely used weed killer¹ in the world. But now there are questions about whether it causes cancer. The makers² of the chemical glyphosate - better known by its trade name, Roundup - are now facing a series of lawsuits³. In three civil cases so far, juries have ordered the company Bayer to pay enormous damages to cancer survivors⁴. Thousands more lawsuits have been filed. For Bayer and for this chemical, it's a stunning⁵ change in fortunes. Here's NPR's Dan Charles.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE⁶: John Draper and I are sitting in the cab of a tractor on the research farm that he manages for the University of Maryland. Behind us, there's a sprayer.

JOHN DRAPER: So away we go.

CHARLES: So it's spraying?

DRAPER: It's spraying.

CHARLES: We're spraying glyphosate. Farmers have been doing this for about four decades with a pretty clear conscience, actually - because glyphosate doesn't persist in the environment as much as, say, DDT did. It doesn't build up in groundwater like another widely used herbicide, atrazine. And it's certainly less toxic⁷ than some of the alternatives.

DRAPER: If we were spraying Gramoxone - even for you to be standing⁸ next to the spray, you'd have to have a respirator on. I'd have to wear a respirator even when I'm in the tractor spraying.

CHARLES: Monsanto started selling Roundup in 1974. And for 20 years, it didn't get much attention. That was Act 1 of the glyphosate drama. Act 2 began in the late 1990s.

(SOUNDBITE OF AD)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: This spring, exciting new seed technology was planted for the first time across the Corn Belt...

CHARLES: Monsanto started selling genetically⁹ modified crops, GMOs. They were modified so they could tolerate glyphosate, which meant that farmers now could spray this chemical right over their so-called Roundup Ready soybeans and corn and cotton.

And the crops were fine, but the weeds died. It was a farming revolution. Monsanto quickly became the world's biggest seed company. And farmers started spraying a lot more glyphosate - 10 times more. It all happened so fast, it scared a lot of people. There were protests.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) No, no GMOs. No, no GMOs. No, no GMOs...

CHARLES: And people started to look a lot more closely at glyphosate. Five years ago, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, part of the World Health Organization, decided¹⁰ to carry out a new assessment¹¹ of its risks. Here's Kate Guyton, a senior scientist at IARC, at a press conference, laying out what they found.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

KATE GUYTON: Strong evidence that glyphosate can damage DNA¹².

CHARLES: There were studies showing that when mice ate glyphosate, they got more tumors.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

GUYTON: These two studies gave sufficient evidence of cancer in animals.

CHARLES: And IARC found what it called limited evidence that people exposed to glyphosate had higher rates of a particular kind of cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

GUYTON: Taking all this evidence together, this was classified as Group 2A, probably carcinogenic to humans.

CHARLES: I gave Kate Guyton a call last week in France. Have you ever gotten so much reaction from anything you've done before?

GUYTON: No. (Laughter). That's a pretty easy answer.

CHARLES: The Internet kind of exploded, she says. Anti-GMO groups said, we told you it was dangerous. Monsanto's top executives were furious, launched a PR campaign attacking IARC. And in the small town of Orange, Va., a personal injury lawyer named Michael Miller¹³ started rounding up clients - people with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who'd used Roundup.

MICHAEL MILLER: I decided these people needed a voice the courtroom.

CHARLES: The scientific picture got more complicated, though. Other government agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Food Safety Authority, took a fresh look at glyphosate. And they said it probably is not giving people cancer. Dave Eastmond, from the University of California, Riverside, helped conduct one of these glyphosate reviews for another part of the World Health Organization.

DAVE EASTMOND: From my reading of things, you know, if glyphosate causes cancer, it's a pretty weak carcinogen, which means you're going to have to have pretty high doses in order to cause it.

CHARLES: Eastmond says there are several reasons for this apparent disagreement. First, IARC just looks at whether glyphosate can cause cancer. Regulators have to decide whether it actually will, considering how much of it people are exposed to. Another reason is different agencies looked at different evidence. Eastmond's committee considered a whole bunch of studies that are not publicly available because companies like Monsanto paid for them and submitted them to regulatory agencies.

EASTMOND: I have never seen a chemical with as many animal cancer studies as glyphosate.

CHARLES: Eastmond says these company-financed studies are credible¹⁴. The labs have to follow strict guidelines. But IARC didn't look at most of them because it only considers results released publicly. And finally, sometimes scientists just look at the same study and disagree about what it means.

EASTMOND: We just evaluated the evidence differently. I mean, but, you know, these are honest disagreements.

CHARLES: Act 3 arrived - the trials, three of them, in and around San Francisco. Lawyers for Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, told jurors repeatedly that regulatory agencies don't think glyphosate causes cancer. Lawyers for the cancer victims, though, suggested that the regulators couldn't be trusted because Monsanto had manipulated them.

Matthew Miller (ph) and his legal team showed the jurors internal Monsanto emails. In one, executives described phone calls with an official at the Environmental Protection Agency.

MILLER: Who said, I don't need to see any more studies. I'm going to declare Roundup safe. And I'm going to stop another agency from looking at it.

CHARLES: Another Monsanto executive talked about ghostwriting papers on glyphosate's safety that outside scientists could publish under their own names.

MILLER: And I think the jury was rightfully offended.

CHARLES: All three juries ordered Bayer to pay huge punitive¹⁵ damages - in the most recent case, a total of $2 billion. Alexandra Lahav, at the University of Connecticut's law school, says one lesson from this case is attempts to get favorable decisions from regulators can backfire in court.

ALEXANDRA LAHAV: They then open themselves up for the jury to say, wait a minute. You're trying to convince the regulator not to regulate you, and now you want me to believe that the regulator is completely objective.

CHARLES: Bayer is appealing these verdicts. And the damages probably will be reduced. But more lawsuits are waiting. The total value of Bayer's stock has fallen $40 billion since the first verdict. The next trial is set for August in St. Louis. Dan Charles, NPR News.

1 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

2 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

4 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

5 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

12 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

13 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

14 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

15 punitive   

adj.惩罚的，刑罚的

参考例句：

• They took punitive measures against the whole gang.他们对整帮人采取惩罚性措施。
• The punitive tariff was imposed to discourage tire imports from China.该惩罚性关税的征收是用以限制中国轮胎进口的措施。