CHICAGO • A federal judge has temporarily blocked California’s plans to require cancer warnings on products containing the weedkiller glyphosate, in a win for manufacturer Monsanto Co.

U.S. District Judge William Shubb said the warnings would be misleading because glyphosate is not known to cause cancer, according to court documents filed on Monday in California. He still allowed the state to keep glyphosate on a list of cancer-causing products.

“Given the heavy weight of evidence in the record that glyphosate is not in fact known to cause cancer, the required warning is factually inaccurate and controversial,” Shubb wrote.

The judge’s decision is important for the Creve Coeur-based seed giant because warnings could discourage use of glyphosate, which is widely used by farmers on genetically engineered crops and by consumers on lawns. The company’s agricultural productivity segment, which includes glyphosate, had net sales of $3.7 billion in fiscal-year 2017.

Monsanto, which is being acquired by Bayer AG, and U.S. farm groups sued California in November to stop the warnings.

The state added glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, to its list of cancer-causing chemicals in July 2017 and had planned to require products containing the chemical carry warnings by July 2018.

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said on Tuesday its actions were lawful and that it was pleased the judge denied Monsanto’s request for an injunction against including glyphosate on the list……more here