Brookings 3M hoping to divert attention from cancers, spontaneous abortions

A Minnesota-based company with an operation in Brookings, South Dakota is hoping to drive attention from links to cancers and spontaneous abortions resulting in a $5 billion lawsuit.

“3M is committed to environmental sustainability,” said Jim Fay, 3M Brookings plant manager. “Programs such as our Environmental Reserve grant reinforce the collaboration 3M seeks to forge with our community partners to help overcome the sustainability challenges we face. We are pleased to provide a $20,000 grant to the Boys & Girls Club of Brookings to support its Recycling Club.” The programs may also have components of science-based environmental education in support of the fund’s goal of improving programming in the environmental space to make a lasting impact on the Earth’s ecosystems in or near a 3M community.

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South Dakota suffers the highest rates of breast cancer in the United States.

A coalition of a dozen national and Midwestern agricultural groups sued on Wednesday to overturn a California decision that could force the popular weed-killer Roundup to carry warning labels that it can cause cancer. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the national wheat and corn growers associations, state agriculture and business organizations in Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota, and a regional group representing herbicide sellers in California, Arizona and Hawaii. The plaintiffs also include St. Louis-based Monsanto Co., which makes Roundup.

Read more at the Brookings Register.

Brookings sits on the banks of the Big Sioux River, the thirteenth most polluted waterway in the United States and is home to South Dakota's most pernicious pig.

The town is also home to a French-owned salted fat factory that relies on subsidized dairies threatening Minnesota watersheds.