Fairfield City Council has phased out Roundup and Georges River Council has told The Sun-Herald that its use would be abandoned. Eight other Sydney councils, including Willoughby, Ku-ring-gai, Sutherland Shire and Waverley, are conducting reviews. Another 18 councils, including InnerWest, Lane Cove and Mosman, continue to use Roundup, arguing they are following the advice of the national pesticides regulator. A spokesman for the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority said "we remain satisfied that APVMA-approved products containing glyphosate [the key ingredient in Roundup] can continue to be used safely according to label directions". The NSW Environment Protection Agency follows this advice. However, the Victorian state government has launched its own review of glyphosate "as a matter of precaution".

Asked whether NSW would follow Victoria's lead at a press conference on Sunday, Better Regulation Minister Matt Kean said the Berejiklian government would be "closely monitoring" Victoria's findings. Roundup is among the chemicals being used by WaterNSW near the Fitzroy Falls in the Southern Highlands catchment area, south of Sydney. Opponents of Roundup have seized on science linking glyphosate with several diseases including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, pancreatic cancer and leukemia. Sydney firm LHD lawyers is now considering a class action against Bayer, and personal injury firm Maurice Blackburn is evaluating individual cases. Principal at Maurice Blackburn, Jonathan Walsh, said the firm had fielded hundreds of inquiries over Roundup in recent months, mainly over workplace exposures.

"We're actively investigating a small number," he said, adding the first would be a "test case" under Australian law. Jason Reynolds, a science lecturer at Western Sydney University, said the risks were likely to centre on people whose work resulted in extensive exposure, such as council employees. Loading The manufacturer of Roundup, Bayer, has lost three major US court battles against people suffering cancer in just 12 months. It described the latest $US2 billion verdict as "excessive and unjustifiable". A Bayer spokesperson said the jury verdicts conflicted with a recent interim decision of the US Environmental Protection Agency, which found glyphosate was not a carcinogen and there were no risks to public health where it was used in accordance with label instructions.

While the company had "great sympathy" for the plaintiffs, the Bayer spokesperson said there was a consensus among health regulators worldwide that glyphosate is not carcinogenic, following 40 years of extensive scientific research LHD Lawyers special counsel Michael Hyland said his firm was "most interested" in progressing its investigations into the potential class action in Australia. But any case was likely to hinge on the issue of medical causation, he said, with the judge to decide whether it was "more probable that not" that the plaintiff's cancer was caused by Roundup. The Victorian review will examine glyphosate is being stored and handled, and whether risks "are being controlled so far as reasonably practicable". Four years ago, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared glyphosate "probably carcinogenic to humans".

Joanna Immig, co-ordinator of the National Toxics Network, warned about 600 products in Australia carry glyphosate as the active ingredient. "Numerous studies now show glyphosate residues in everything from breast milk to beer," Ms Immig said. Loading "With the recent court cases you’d think the national regulator would be taking a closer look at the top selling herbicide that’s used to grow our food … we’re all being exposed". Sutherland Shire Council commissioned an urgent review of its Roundup use after it was presented with a petition from concerned local residents in April.

In a letter to the council, industry lobby group CropLife Australia argued the scientific evidence supporting glyphosate’s safety was "clear and overwhelming" and it would be "irresponsible ... to make decisions on misleading and incorrect media reporting". But councillor Barry Collier, who raised the matter, was "in no doubt" a review was necessary. "I’m sorry for being sceptical but this kind of response is reminiscent of the cigarette and fibro manufacturers who, for decades, kept assuring us that their products were safe," he said. Other big users include authorities managing drinking water catchment areas, where signs alerting visitors of Roundup use are not uncommon. Wingecarribee Reservoir, which supplies water to towns in the Southern Highlands, is one dam known to have "massive weed issues around its shoreline", according to Ian Wright, also a lecturer at Western Sydney University.

WaterNSW, which manages the catchments, said it "stores, handles and applies chemicals in line with strict internal procedures", consistent with the advice given by APVMA. Sydney Water says it collaborates with WaterNSW to monitor drinking water for chemicals such as glyphosate. "Sydney Water has never detected glyphosate near or above the limits set in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines," a spokeswoman said. The biggest users of glyphosate outside government are farmers. National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson said any ban of the chemical would result in a "monumental" cost to the industry, because glyphosate enables farmers to control weeds from above the ground, doing away with the need to plough. "Currently, there is no product approved for use in Australia that is as safe or as effective as glyphosate for weed control," Ms Simson said. "The productivity of, especially grain growers but also graziers, would decline dramatically, with a key tool in the weed management tool box gone."