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Agence France-Presse

A California jury ordered chemical giant Monsanto to pay nearly US$290 million on Friday for failing to warn a dying groundskeeper that its weed killer Roundup might cause cancer.
Jurors unanimously found that Monsanto – which vowed to appeal – acted with “malice” and that its weed killers Roundup and the professional grade version RangerPro contributed “substantially” to Dewayne Johnson’s terminal illness.
Following eight weeks of trial proceedings, the San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay US$250 million in punitive damages along with compensatory damages and other costs, bringing the total figure to nearly US$290 million.

“The jury got it wrong,” the company’s vice-president Scott Partridge told reporters outside the courthouse.
Monsanto’s German owner Bayer insisted on Saturday that the weed killer Roundup was “safe”.
“On the basis of scientific conclusions, the views of worldwide regulatory authorities and the decades-long practical experience with glyphosate use, Bayer is convinced that glyphosate is safe and does not cause cancer,” the company said, referring to a chemical ingredient in the weed killer.
Johnson, a California groundskeeper diagnosed in 2014 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a cancer that affects white blood cells – says he repeatedly used a professional form of Roundup while working at a school in Benicia, California.
“I want to thank everybody on the jury from the bottom of my heart,” Johnson, 46, said during a press conference after the verdict. “I am glad to be here; the cause is way bigger than me. Hopefully this thing will get the attention it needs.”
Johnson, who appeared to be fighting back sobs while the verdict was read, wept openly, as did some jurors, when he met with the panel afterward.
I am glad to be here; the cause is way bigger than me. Hopefully this thing will get the attention it needs
Dewayne Johnson, plaintiff
The lawsuit built on 2015 findings by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the UN World Health Organisation, which classified Roundup’s main ingredient glyphosate as a probable carcinogen, causing the state of California to follow suit.
“We are sympathetic to Mr Johnson and his family,” Monsanto said in a statement promising to appeal the ruling and “continue to vigorously defend this product, which has a 40-year history of safe use and continues to be a vital, effective and safe tool for farmers and others”.
But Johnson’s lawyer Brent Wisner said the verdict “shows the evidence is overwhelming” that the product poses danger.
“When you are right, it is really easy to win,” he said.
Wisner called the ruling the “tip of the spear” of litigation likely to come.
The lawsuit is the first to accuse the product of causing cancer, but observers say a Monsanto defeat likely opens the door to thousands of other claims against the company, which was recently acquired by Germany’s Bayer.
Robert F. Kennedy Jnr – an environmental lawyer, son of the late US senator and a member of Johnson’s legal team – hugged Johnson after the verdict.
“The jury sent a message to the Monsanto boardroom that they have to change the way they do business,” said Kennedy, who championed the case publicly.
Partridge said outside the courthouse that Monsanto had no intention of settling the slew of similar cases in the legal queue, saying if anything the verdict would prompt the company to work harder to demonstrate the weed killer is safe.
“It is the most widely used and most widely studied herbicide in the world,” Partridge said. “The verdict today does not change the science.”
Monsanto being sued for poisoning US state
Johnson’s team expressed confidence in the verdict, saying the judge in the case had kept out a mountain of more evidence backing their position.
“All the efforts by Monsanto to put their finger in the dyke and hold back the science; the science is now too persuasive,” Kennedy said, pointing to “cascading” scientific evidence about the health dangers of Roundup.
“You not only see many people injured, you see the corruption of public officials, the capture of agencies that are supposed to protect us from pollution and the falsification of science. In many ways, American democracy and our justice system was on trial in this case.”

Before jurors went to deliberate, Johnson’s lawyer Brent Wisner asked them to deliver a “day of reckoning” for Monsanto.
“The science finally caught up, where they couldn’t bury it anymore,” Wisner told the jury in closing arguments.
Roundup is Monsanto’s leading product and glyphosate is reportedly the world’s most commonly used weed killer.
The science finally caught up, where they couldn’t bury it anymore
Brent Wisner, lawyer
“The Johnson v Monsanto verdict is a win for all of humanity and all life on earth,” said Zen Honeycutt, founding executive director of non-profit group Moms Across America. “The majority of our illnesses and losses to soil quality, water, wildlife and marine life are due to toxic chemicals, particularly Monsanto’s most widely used glyphosate herbicides like Roundup and Ranger Pro.”
Despite its denials of any links between its products and ill health effects, Monsanto has already suffered hits to its reputation in light of the controversy.
Records unsealed earlier by a federal court lent credence to Johnson’s claims – internal company emails with regulators suggested Monsanto had ghostwritten research later attributed to academics.
Founded in 1901 in St Louis, Missouri, Monsanto began producing agrochemicals in the 1940s. It was acquired by Bayer for more than US$62 billion in June.
Monsanto was one of the companies that produced the defoliant “Agent Orange” – which has been linked to cancer and other diseases – for use by US forces in Vietnam.
The company denies responsibility for how the military used the product.
Monsanto launched Roundup in 1976 and soon thereafter began genetically modifying plants, making some resistant to Roundup.


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Environment

Monsanto ordered to pay US$289 million for its weed killers that caused cancer

Dewayne Johnson, above, won his case against the agrochemical giant Monsanto, successfully arguing that the company’s weedkillers caused his cancer. Photo: AFP

FILE PHOTO: Monsanto Co's Roundup is shown for sale in Encinitas, California, U.S., June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: Monsanto defense attorney George Lombardi speaks during the opening remarks of the Monsanto trial in San Francisco, California, U.S., July 09, 2018. Picture taken July 09, 2018. Josh Edelson/Pool via Reuters/File Photo

US state sues Monsanto for ‘significant harm’ to environment by toxic chemicals

A rainbow at Port Susan near Stanwood, Washington state. Photo: AP

Wind farm stand on a bluff above Wallula, Washington, near the Columbia River, May 19, 2010. Southern Washington's Windy Flat and Wallula bluffs have huge concentrations of wind turbine's that have created giant wind farms. (Steve Ringman/Seattle Times/MCT)

People carry signs during a protest against agribusiness giant Monsanto in Los Angeles on May 25, 2013. Marches and rallies against Monsanto and genetically modified organisms (GMO) food and seeds were held across the US and in other countries with protestors calling attention to the dangers posed by GMO food. AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECK

In this Sept. 10, 2014 file photo, Monsanto crew members Gerard Manuel, left, and Rommel Angale, right, count corn sprouts in a field of test hybrids in a breeding nursery near Kihei, Hawaii. The fight over regulating genetically engineered crops and pesticides in three Hawaii counties will be back in a federal courtroom Wednesday, June 15, 2016, as some agricultural giants look to protect their research farms from bans against modified food in the islands. (The Maui News, Matthew Thayer via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

A bird watcher views snow geese in flight over a field Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, in the Skagit Valley near La Conner, Wash. Bird watchers took advantage of a day without rain Thursday to gaze at some of the tens of thousands of snow geese that spend the winter near the mouth of the Skagit River there. The geese migrate from their mating grounds in Alaska and Siberia in late November to spend the winter in wetlands and farm fields of the Skagit Valley and other areas of northwest Washington. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Germany’s Bayer buys Monsanto after months-long pursuit

Monsanto’s genetically modified seed offerings and Climate Corp data analytics offering to farmers would fit in with Bayer’s crop protection lines. Photo: AP

News

World

United States & Canada

The lawsuit built on 2015 findings by the International Agency for Research on Cancer which classified Roundup’s main ingredient glyphosate as a probable carcinogen


Wellness

Monsanto ordered to pay US$289 million for its weed killers that caused cancer

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The lawsuit built on 2015 findings by the International Agency for Research on Cancer which classified Roundup’s main ingredient glyphosate as a probable carcinogen

The lawsuit built on 2015 findings by the International Agency for Research on Cancer which classified Roundup’s main ingredient glyphosate as a probable carcinogen