Iowa Legislators: Reject the Cancer Gag Act!

This legislative session, our lawmakers will decide who comes first: Iowans or multinational pesticide corporations. It's up to us to make sure Iowa's elected leaders choose to protect people and oppose Bayer's efforts to silence cancer patients, mask the health effects of chemical pesticides, and protect Big Ag.

Send a message to your Iowa legislator and urge them to reject the Cancer Gag Act!

For decades, U.S. consumers have been filing lawsuits against Monsanto, the creator of Roundup, which contains the probable carcinogen glyphosate. Bayer purchased Monsanto in 2018. Now their lobbyists are in Iowa promoting a corporate immunity bill that would block cancer patients from suing Bayer.

Iowa is second in the nation for cancer rates – and the only state where cancer cases are on the rise. In any given year, over half of our state is covered in glyphosate. Bayer, the only U.S. maker of glyphosate, has lost billions in court to plaintiffs with cancer. Instead of using their profits to find safer alternatives, Bayer is spending millions campaigning for legal immunity, cutting off the only legitimate recourse available to Iowans whose lives have been upended and cut short by cancer.

Urge your Iowa lawmaker to protect Iowans, not the interests of the chemical industry and Big Ag!

Your Message

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I am writing to urge you to oppose SF 394, a bill that would grant legal immunity to the pesticide industry and leave the pesticide use label created by the EPA as the only measure protecting Iowans from potential pesticide harm.

Industry lobbyists want Iowans and lawmakers to believe this bill protects farmers, but in reality, this legislation is designed to protect corporations that have failed to provide consumers with sufficient warnings about risks associated with their product. This is the same playbook we’ve seen with products like tobacco, asbestos, and opioids: when consumers use litigation to hold corporations accountable, those corporations turn to legislative action to avoid responsibility for the damage their products have caused.

By 2022, Bayer-Monsanto had settled over 100,000 Roundup lawsuits, paying out about $11 billion in damages. These lawsuits have been brought by people, including farmers, who are suffering. The idea that these legal actions should be written off as “frivolous” and reined in by state legislatures is a gross misrepresentation.

EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs relies on chemical corporations to conduct and submit data from pesticide studies – akin to the fox guarding the henhouse. There are many documented cases of such companies hiding negative data and funding research that makes their products look safer. The court system is the only tool Iowans have to protect ourselves and hold pesticide corporations accountable. Iowa is second in the nation for incidence of cancer and the only state where the rate of new cases is increasing, but information about the cause of this public health crisis is still being gathered. Granting the industry immunity now would be a mistake that would rob us of our options for recourse when we find sufficient evidence that these products are culpable for making us sick in the future.

Please oppose the Cancer Gag Act and any language that seeks to protect pesticide companies from accountability through our courts!

Sincerely,
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{user_data~City}, {user_data~State} {user_data~Ghost Zip Code}

Sincerely,
[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]

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