Jury returns $ 2 billion judgment against Monsanto for couples with cancer
The judgment in Oakland includes more than $ 55 million in compensatory damages to the couple and $ 2 billion in punitive damages, a statement said.
The verdict "is so clear of a statement that you can get that they need to change what they do," said one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, Brent Wisner, to journalists on Monday.
Bayer, Monsanto's parent company, insists that glyphosate – the key service in Roundup – is safe.
The septuagenic plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod of Livermore, used the herbicide on the property for more than three decades and were diagnosed with the same type of cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, four years apart, according to their lawyers.
"The contrast between today's judgment and EPA's conclusion that there is no risk to public health from current registered use of glyphosate" could not be stronger, " said Bayer.
Not all groups, however, have played the EPA's announcement. Things like the pillars surged after a report by the World Health Organization in 2015 suggested that glyphosate can cause cancer.
In the statement, Michael Miller, another of the pillion's lawyers, said that their case is different from two previous Monsanto attempts "where the judges severely restricted the amount of plaintiffs' evidence." He said the jury was showing a "mountain of evidence that showed Monsanto's manipulation of science, media and regulatory agencies to send his own agenda."
On Monday, Wisner said this evidence contained e-mails and text messages between Monsanto and EPA officials.
"This will continue to Monsanto and now Bayer takes responsibility for his product," Wisner said.
"This is not the end of this trial," he said. "This is the beginning."
CNN's Holly Yan, Sarah Moon and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.
