Monsanto commissioned to pay $ 80 million in Roundup Cancer Case
A federal jury on Wednesday ordered Monsanto to pay more than $ 80 million in compensation to a California man whose cancer it decided was partly caused by his use of the popular weedkiller Roundup.
The six-member jury found that Monsanto should be held accountable for human disease because it failed to include a label on the product's warning of the weed killer's risk of causing cancer.
The verdict, delivered in the United States District Court in San Francisco, is a milestone in the continuing public debate on the health effects of Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, the world's most widely used weed killer. Monsanto is currently defending against thousands of similar claims.
Plaintiff Edwin Hardeman, 70, used Roundup to control weeds and poison oak on the property for 26 years. In 2015, he learned that he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The following year, after World Health Organization's International Agency for Cancer Research declared glyphosate a probable carcinogen, Mr. Hardeman sued Monsanto.
Wednesday's judgment ended the second of two phases in the experiment. Last week the jury issued a first verdict that said weedkiller was a "significant factor" by causing Mr. Hardeman's cancer. The jury then began discussing on Tuesday afternoon whether Monsanto showed negligence and should be held accountable.
By deciding that Monsanto was in charge, the Hardeman jury handed out $ 75 million in punitive injuries, Jennifer Moore, one of his lawyers, said in a telephone interview. About $ 5 million was also awarded for Mr. Hardeman's past and future suffering, as well as more than $ 200,000 for medical bills, Moore said.
Ms. Moore said Monsanto had continually ignored scientific studies showing the harmful health effects of Roundup.
"The evidence is overwhelming that Roundup can cause non-Hodgkin's lymphoma," she said. "And despite that, Monsanto continues to deny it." She said Mr. Hardeman's cancer was forgiven.
A statement from Bayer, who bought Monsanto last year, said the company would appeal the jury's verdict.
"We are disappointed with the jury's decision, but this judgment does not change the weight of over four decades of extensive science and the conclusions of regulators worldwide that support the safety of our glyphosate-based herbicides and that they are not carcinogenic," the statement said.
In December 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft assessment of human health hazards which indicate that glyphosate was most likely not carcinogenic to humans.
During the trial, Mr. Hardeman's legal team presented expert science and research that Roundup causes mutations in human cells, and that human populations exposed to Roundup are more likely to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Bayer & # 39; s government said it believed the jury was most likely divided into the scientific evidence presented in the case, as it was said by jury members taking more than four days to decide last week's verdict.
In a similar case last year, a jury in California found that Monsanto had not notified a school hunter of the cancer risk released by Roundup. The jury ordered Monsanto to pay $ 289 million in compensation, but a judge later reduced the payment to around $ 80 million. Monsanto also appeals to that judgment.
"Now, two different juries have found that Roundup causes a person's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma," Moore said. "And that Monsanto would be punished for his conduct."
