In addition to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, studies have linked Dicamba to liver, kidney, lung and colon cancer, and DNA damage, and it’s already damaged millions of acres of non-GMO crops.
When weeds started becoming resistant to Monsanto’s infamous Roundup herbicide, the company came out with a more powerful, more destructive herbicide called XtendiMax.
Its main ingredient, dicamba, has destroyed millions of acres of non-GMO crops since the EPA approved its use on dicamba-tolerant cotton and soy in 2016.
Like Roundup-Ready crops, dicamba-tolerant crops must be specifically genetically engineered to withstand dicamba, which is particularly prone to drift, and has already led to thousands of complaints and dozens of lawsuits by organic farmers nationwide.
Cancer
In addition to becoming ineffective, Monsanto’s Roundup had also become infamous for doubling the risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in those who applied the herbicide to crops, for which the company has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements.
Roundup may have disappeared from the media’s spotlight and retailer shelves in the last few years, but Monsanto is still quietly poisoning just as many people, or more, with its new heavy-hitting herbicide dicamba.
Just because it hasn’t racked up as many lawsuits and headlines yet, doesn’t mean it’s not as deadly. Give it a few years. It’s only been in widespread use for about four.
A 2005 study found “organochlorines” (including dicamba) are just as likely as Roundup to lead to non-Hodgkin lymphoma as Roundup (glyphosate).
And, according to the latest, most comprehensive study, dicamba exposure is responsible for several other types of cancers as well.
The study looked at over 50,000 commercial pesticide applicators working between the years of 1993 and 1997 and analyzed their health over the next 20 years.
Compared to those working with other herbicides, dicamba users had an 80% higher risk of liver cancer, 28% higher risk of kidney cancer and a 25% higher risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma . Dicamba applicators were also 20% more likely to develop lymphocytic leukaemia compared to non-dicamba pesticide users.
An earlier study found they also had a higher risk of lung and colon cancers.
Dicamba is also known to cause DNA mutations and induce oxidative stress, two pathways known to cause cancer.
Monarch butterflies
Dicamba also kills milkweed, on which almost-extinct monarch butterflies are completely reliant, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Center is suing the EPA for reapproving dicamba in 2020. You can support the organization here.