Jury orders Monsanto to pay $289 million to man who claimed Roundup helped cause his cancer - Entrepreneur Generations

On Aug. 10 a San Francisco jury found that weedkiller Roundup helped cause Dewayne Johnson's terminal cancer and slapped manufacturer Monsanto with $39 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages. Johnson applied Roundup 20 to 30 times a year while working as a school groundskeeper and was accidentally doused in the product twice. Two years after the first such accident, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Holly Yan reports for CNN. 

It's impossible to prove what causes someone's cancer, but under California law the plaintiff only had to prove that Roundup was a significant factor and that Monsanto failed to warn consumers about the product's cancer risk. The World Health Organization ruled in 2015 that there is limited evidence to suggest that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans. Monsanto said in a statement after the verdict that many studies suggest Roundup, or its main ingredient glyphosate, do not cause cancer. Roundup is the most-used herbicide in the world and has been on the market for more than 40 years, Yan reports.

Though more than 800 people have filed such lawsuits against Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, Johnson's is the first to go to trial because in California a defendant can get an expedited trial if they are near death. The verdict may have spurred a flurry of new lawsuits against Monsanto and other companies, Yan reports.

Less than a week after the San Francisco verdict, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man sued Monsanto, claiming that the Roundup he used on his property for 23 years caused his non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Nick Hytrek reports for the Sioux City Journal in Iowa.

And a class-action lawsuit was filed against General Mills in Florida a few days ago on the grounds that the company should have warned consumers about the presence of glyphosate in Cheerios, Elaine Watson reports for Food Navigator USA. 

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2nZpct1 Jury orders Monsanto to pay $289 million to man who claimed Roundup helped cause his cancer - Entrepreneur Generations

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