Source: National Agricultural Law Center
At least four states have introduced bills that would limit the ability of plaintiffs to bring claims that pesticide manufacturers failed to warn them about potential health risks of using pesticide products if the pesticide has a federally approved label that is consistent with either the most recent human health assessment for the pesticide or with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) carcinogenicity classification of the pesticide.
State legislatures in Florida, Idaho, Iowa, and Missouri have all introduced similar bills aimed at providing some level of protection to pesticide manufacturers from state law failure-to-warn claims. These bills come after several years of lawsuits filed by plaintiffs claiming that exposure to a particular pesticide caused them to develop a serious illness, despite EPA concluding that the products were safe for use.
