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Bayer Faces Pivotal Test of $7.25 Billion Roundup Settlement in Missouri Court
Monsanto unit heads to a Missouri state court on Monday seeking approval of a $7.25 billion settlement that could resolve tens of thousands of U.S. lawsuits alleging that its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. In a pivotal test of the company’s efforts to put years of litigation behind it, Judge Timothy Boyer will examine the settlement and weigh objections to the deal from some plaintiffs’ attorneys who argue their clients should not be pushed into Bayer’s proposed framework.
Boyer will also hear from lawyers who say the settlement is the best way for their clients to receive compensation for injuries caused by Roundup. The settlement requires the court’s approval, but Boyer is not expected to issue an immediate ruling at the hearing in St. Louis. The litigation has been a major overhang on Bayer since its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto, costing the company billions of dollars and weighing on its share price.
Investors have closely watched Chief Executive Bill Anderson’s efforts to resolve the claims as a key test of his broader turnaround plan, after a previous settlement in 2020 worth approximately $10 billion resolved many existing Roundup lawsuits but left Bayer exposed to future claims.
Chemical Industry Backed Laws in Three US States to Restrict Use of Air Pollution Data
As the US’s network for monitoring air pollution deteriorates, a Floodlight investigation has found that the chemical industry is going state-to-state to restrict one of the few options citizens have left for holding polluters accountable: low-cost air sensors.
Over the past two years, the non-profit investigative newsroom determined, lawmakers in Louisiana, Kentucky and Ohio have passed strikingly similar laws barring regulators from acting on air-quality data that communities collect themselves — unless it comes from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved equipment that typically costs tens of thousands of dollars. Similar legislation has repeatedly been introduced in West Virginia.
In case after case, industry has made the same argument: community monitoring is not reliable enough for regulatory enforcement. Yet when lawmakers in West Virginia offered a version of a bill that would have let regulators consider community data if it met manufacturer requirements, industry refused to back it.
EPA to Loosen Methane Rules, Boosting Pollution From Oil and Gas Wells
The Trump administration is poised to loosen environmental restrictions on oil and gas wells that produce very little energy but release vast amounts of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to drastically weaken requirements for leak inspections and equipment upgrades at more than 700,000 low-producing “stripper wells,” according to a draft rule being reviewed by the White House and seen by ProPublica. These wells — which tend to be old, poorly maintained and thus prone to leaking — produce just 6% of the country’s oil and natural gas but are responsible for roughly half the sector’s methane pollution, studies show.
The EPA acknowledged similar figures in the draft. But it said that the cost of complying with existing regulations would force the lowest-producing wells to shut down and that this was “unreasonable” — even though it would eliminate just 0.4% of U.S. oil and gas production, according to an industry estimate cited in the proposed rule.
9/11’s Dust and Ash Coated Their Childhood. Is It Still Making Them Ill?
Jacob Fortinsky and his twin sister, Sarah, were a month away from turning 4 when the first jetliner slammed into the World Trade Center 25 years ago. They had been watching Franklin the Turtle cartoons in their apartment one block west, on the 21st floor of Gateway Plaza. As fire trucks and ambulances gathered below, the twins began to count them.
When the south tower collapsed that morning, Sept. 11, 2001, the windows of their apartment blew in. Dust and debris filled their home, bringing darkness. Sarah thought a monster had come for them. Their mother and nanny carried them and their 2-year-old sister into a stairwell frantic with fleeing neighbors, then down to a basement boiler room. Someone distributed strips of wet fabric, with instructions to breathe through it as a filter.
These are Mr. Fortinsky’s very first memories: the fire engines in the street, the dust cloud, the panic in the stairwell, showing his sisters how to use the wet cloth. When they eventually emerged from the building, they were barefoot. The ground felt soft, covered in powdery ash. They boarded a boat to New Jersey. At a cousin’s home, the children took bath after bath until the water was no longer murky with the gray dust that had clung to them.
COPD Origins Tied to Early Child Lung Development, Air Pollution
The origins of COPD may take root decades before clinical diagnosis through early lung development trajectories influenced by environmental exposures, according to findings presented at ERS 2026.
Researchers found that infants born with a higher genetic predisposition for COPD showed reduced lung function growth between birth and age 6, but this trajectory occurred exclusively in children exposed to elevated concentrations of ambient air pollution.
“COPD develops through a combination of genetic factors and environmental exposures across the lifespan, leading to an accelerated decline in lung function. While COPD is often associated with smoking, growing evidence suggests that genetic and environmental factors in early life may also contribute to the foundations of the disease, particularly during lung development in infancy and childhood,” said Carla da Silva Sena, researcher at University Children’s Hospital Basel UKBB, University of Basel, and Bern University Hospital.
Why Salinas Valley Residents Are Raising Alarms Over a Controversial New Pesticide Surge
With each application of methomyl now popping up on the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s SprayDays alert system and an especially bad pest season increasing spraying, Salinas Valley citizens are raising questions about the health of their communities.
For many living near these fields, methomyl’s track record — banned in dozens of countries, acutely toxic, with possible links to endocrine disorder — is cause for alarm. But without it, farmers could lose their crops to an onslaught of insects, said Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner Juan Hidalgo.
Yanely Martinez, a mother, pesticide activist and former Greenfield city councilwoman, represents those with concerns. She calls the relative lack of information about the effects of pesticides on her community “pesticide secrecy.” A major step forward in the call for transparency happened last year with the introduction of SprayDays — which sends out notifications each time a “restricted material” is sprayed.
Since the spring 2025, those who sign up for SprayDays notifications receive alerts at least 24 hours before restricted materials like methomyl are set to be sprayed. The notifications list the substance, time, method of application and location within a square mile.