Amid growing local concerns over the safety of Roundup, the most popular weedkiller in the world, Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw said that an investigation has been launched to determine whether Jamaica should impose a ban on its importation and use.
“It is a cause for great concern and, in fact, already we initiated [an investigation] and requested information about the extent to which it continues to be imported into Jamaica with a view to banning it … . It is a potentially serious matter, as you can imagine,” Shaw told The Gleaner last Friday.
Jamaican farmers have been getting increasingly worried about whether the glyphosate-based herbicide is safe to use, as the manufacturer of the weedkiller is once again facing allegations that its product causes cancer.
Agro-chemical company Bayer Monsanto was last year ordered to pay US$289 million in damages to an American, 46-year-old former groundsman Dewayne Johnson, who claimed that the product caused his cancer and that the corporation failed to warn him of the health hazards from exposure. Read More…..http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20190304/govt-considers-roundup-ban-amid-cancer-fears