SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluated the carcinogenic risks of glyphosate and IARC Monograph 112 further classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” finding a positive association for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
(b) In July 2017, the state added glyphosate to a list of chemicals recognized as carcinogens in the Labor Code and under Proposition 65, also known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.
(c) In 2018, a California jury awarded $78 million to a school groundskeeper formerly employed by the Benicia Unified School District who was injured, and developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, after repeated exposure to glyphosate through his school job duties that required applying herbicides containing glyphosate.
(d) In May 2019, a California jury awarded more than $2 billion to a couple who claimed that Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based “Roundup” weed killer caused their cancer. It was the largest jury verdict in the United States to date against a company in litigation over glyphosate-based herbicide.
(e) It has been reported that at least 61 cities, counties, and communities across 22 states have voluntarily considered, moved to enact, or have enacted moratoriums, restrictions, or bans on the use of glyphosate due to findings of the chemical’s toxicity.