Controversial Roundup chemical, glyphosate, to be banned as herbicide on Fort Myers Beach

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, will soon be forbidden in Fort Myers Beach, making the town the first Lee County municipality to ban the controversial weed-killer.

Elsewhere in the state, Key West and Satellite Beach passed laws prohibiting it and several cities in California have as well.

A California jury determined in March that the widely used weed killer was a substantial factor in a California man's cancer, in a lawsuit called a bellwether for hundreds of others waiting to be tried, but many government regulators deny a link between cancer and glyphosate.

Its manufacturer rejects such a connection, saying hundreds of studies have established that the chemical is safe. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto last year, said in a statement it "(believes) firmly that the science confirms glyphosate-based herbicides do not cause cancer."