A bill recently came out of a committee in the Iowa Senate and is eligible for floor debate.

Senate Study Bill 1015 would prevent pesticide companies from lawsuits that were label-related, as long as the company followed all federal label regulations. District 24 Senator Jesse Green serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the bill advanced from, and he voted for the legislation because he didn’t think it is right that people sue a company if a pesticide chemical contains something harmful in it that the federal government does not deem to be so that it needs to be on the label.

Green uses the example of glyphosate, a product that is in pesticides where people were suing due to the belief of it causing cancer. He has yet to find a study that directly links glyphosate to causing cancer because the Environmental Protection Agency does not classify it as such. He describes what the future outlook for the bill may look like in the legislature.

“No state has passed this bill. So it does have a tough road ahead of it. So I did vote in favor of this legislation to keep it moving forward. But in my mind I do think there’s some merit to this legislation to make sure that we have a little bit clearer law around this.”     

The bill passed out of committee by a vote of 11-7.