Herbicide

An herbicide is a pesticide designed to kill weeds and other unwanted plants. Farmers, groundskeepers, public works crews, and homeowners use them on crops, lawns, roadsides, and gardens. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency registers herbicides and sets the rules on their labels, including who may apply them and what protective gear to wear.

Two herbicides dominate the litigation. The first is glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2A), citing studies of exposed people that reported increases in non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The EPA reached a different conclusion in 2017, finding glyphosate "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans." That disagreement is central to the Roundup cases, where plaintiffs claim the maker failed to warn about cancer risk.

The second is paraquat, a highly toxic weed killer restricted to certified applicators. Thousands of people who worked with it have sued, alleging exposure caused Parkinson's disease; those federal cases are consolidated in multidistrict litigation.

Herbicide injury claims are individual cases that depend on proof of exposure (years of use, job records, purchase records) and a diagnosis. Keep any records of the products you used and when. See our pages on the Roundup cancer lawsuit, the paraquat Parkinson's lawsuit, and the Roundup concentrate settlement.