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ayer’s proposed $7.25 billion class action settlement of Roundup litigation received preliminary approval from a Missouri court on Wednesday, rejecting opposition from a group of lawyers representing roughly 20,000 plaintiffs who claim they developed cancer from using the company’s herbicide products.

The decision from Missouri Circuit Court Judge Timothy Boyer allows for the start of a nationwide program to notify people about the class action settlement plan. Bayer, which bought Roundup maker in 2018, must deposit $500 million into a settlement fund within 10 days as part of the plan.

Syngenta, maker of a controversial pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease, said on Tuesday that it would stop making its paraquat weed killer by the end of June.

The announcement comes as the company is facing several thousand lawsuits brought by people in the US who allege they developed Parkinson’s disease due to their exposure to Syngenta’s paraquat products.

A group of 14 law firms representing nearly 20,000 plaintiffs is seeking to intervene in Bayer’s proposed class-action settlement of Roundup litigation, citing concerns that the deal will not be fair to cancer sufferers.

The group filed both a motion to intervene and a motion for an extension of time for court preliminary approval of the deal in St Louis city circuit court in Missouri late on 24 February.

The law firms say the deal appears “unprecedented” and raises multiple “red flags”.

In an opening salvo aimed at convincing the US Supreme Court to curtail costly Roundup litigation, Bayer is citing support from President Donald Trump and US regulators while renewing a threat to stop sales of glyphosate-based herbicides to farmers if it does not prevail with the justices.

The Supreme Court agreed in January to hear Bayer’s arguments that federal law preempts lawsuits claiming that the company failed to warn users of a cancer risk associated with its weed killers because the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not required such cancer warnings. The court said at the time it would limit its review to only that question.

In a move enraging health and environmental advocates, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting production of and providing “immunity” for glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which have been linked to cancer and are the subject of widespread US litigation.

The order also protects domestic production of phosphorus, which is used in making glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals, as well as a range of other products, including some in military defense. Ensuring “robust domestic elemental phosphorus mining and United States-based production of glyphosate-based herbicides is central to American economic and national security,” the order states.

The Feb. 18 order cites authority under the Defense Production Act and instructs US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to issue orders and regulations as “may be necessary to implement this order.”

The White House said “the threat of reduced or ceased production” of phosphorous and glyphosate herbicides “gravely endangers national security and defense, which includes food-supply security,” and the executive order cites glyphosate as a “cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy.”

When a team of scientists embarked two years ago on a $1 million landmark study of Iowa’s persistent water quality problems, they knew that the findings would be important to share. The state’s stunningly high cancer rates amid its inability to stem the tide of pollutants flowing into rivers and lakes was a growing public concern.

But now, after the completed study pointed to agricultural pollution as a significant source of the key US farm state’s water problems, public officials have quietly stripped funding away from plans to promote the study findings, according to sources involved in the project.

Syngenta is another step closer to potentially putting an end to thousands of lawsuits brought by people blaming the company’s paraquat weed killer for causing Parkinson’s disease.

After signing a preliminary agreement with plaintiffs’ attorneys in April, the company now has in place a signed “Master Settlement Agreement”, according to a recent court filing.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Several hundred Iowa residents gathered in the state capital this week, calling on public officials – and each other – to take swift action against dangerously polluted water supplies that are closely linked to the state’s powerful agricultural industry.

Some attendees drove for hours from rural farmsteads for the Aug. 4 event, squeezing into a packed auditorium on the campus of Drake University to listen to a team of  scientists detail new research showing how multiple harmful pollutants flowing through Iowa watersheds are jeopardizing public and environmental health.

Agricultural operations across Iowa are a leading cause of significant water pollution problems in the state, posing dire risks to public and environmental health, according to a new scientific report that is sparking heated debate in the key US farm state.

The 227-page “Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment” (CISWRA) was formally released by Polk County, Iowa, officials on July 1 after months of what multiple sources said were intentional actions by public officials to suppress details of the report.

The report caps a two-year-long research review by a team of 16 scientists that focused on pollution patterns in two “essential” rivers fed from a watershed running from southern Minnesota through the central part of Iowa to the state capital of Des Moines.

Those rivers, the Des Moines and the Raccoon, are the primary source of drinking water for roughly 600,000 people and are considered important recreational state assets, but the rivers are commonly laden with harmful contaminants that include phosphorus and nitrogen, bacteria from animal and human waste, pesticides and other chemicals.

New research out of Iowa adds to a wide body of evidence showing that when pregnant women are exposed to nitrates in drinking water, it raises the risks of problematic birth outcomes, including low birth weights and pre-term birth.

The study, published June 25 in PLOS Water, found that the risks persist even when exposures are lower than the regulatory standard for allowable levels.

It comes as the US farm state wrestles with near-record levels of nitrates in prominent waterways, and as residents increasingly question high levels of cancer and other health problems occurring across Iowa.

Nitrate levels have been so high recently in key Iowa rivers that in June, public health officials banned about 600,000 businesses and homeowners in central Iowa from watering lawns to limit demands on utility operations seeking to filter nitrates from water for household use.