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Monsanto ordered to pay $289 million in California Roundup cancer trial
A California jury on Friday found Monsanto liable in a lawsuit filed by a man who alleged the company's glyphosate-based weed-killers, including Roundup, caused him cancer and ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages.
The case of school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson was the first lawsuit alleging glyphosate causes cancer to go to trial. Monsanto, a unit of Bayer AG following a $62.5 billion acquisition by the German conglomerate, faces more than 5,000 similar lawsuits across the United States.
The jury at San Francisco's Superior Court of California deliberated for three days before finding that Monsanto had failed to warn Johnson and other consumers of the cancer risks posed by its weed killers.
It awarded $39 million in compensatory and $250 million in punitive damages.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/10/monsanto-ordered-to-pay-289m-in-california-roundup-cancer-trial.html
Monsanto Ordered to Pay $289 Million to Man Who Claimed Glyphosate Caused His Cancer
Monsanto ordered to pay $289m damages in Roundup cancer trial
Chemical giant Monsanto has been ordered to pay $289m (£226m) damages to a man who claimed herbicides containing glyphosate had caused his cancer.
In a landmark case, a Californian jury found that Monsanto knew its Roundup and RangerPro weedkillers were dangerous and failed to warn consumers. It's the first lawsuit to go to trial alleging a glyphosate link to cancer.
Monsanto denies that glyphosate causes cancer and says it intends to appeal against the ruling. "The jury got it wrong," vice-president Scott Partridge said outside the courthouse in San Francisco.
The claimant in the case, groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson, is among more than 5,000 similar plaintiffs across the US.
Monsanto? Never heard of it. Did you mean Bayer AG?
Previously: Cancer Hazard vs. Risk - Glyphosate
Monsanto Faces First US Trial Over Roundup Cancer Link
Monsanto Cancer Trial Begins in San Francisco
Related: Glyphosate Linked to Liver Damage
(Score: 5, Insightful) by leftover on Monday August 13 2018, @01:37AM (4 children)
Quite true, also riding on the back of an even bigger turtle. Roundup acts as an endocrine disruptor, specifically an estrogen analog after reacting with metals in soil. That is what it does to mess with weed's growth and kill them. People and weeds share hormones which are big, complicated molecules that represent a significant evolutionary investment. Mess with weed hormones and you mess with human hormones. Roundup is persistent in the environment and can be detected all over the world. How could anyone believe it would not have an effect on people? Why is this not even a topic of discussion? More specifically, how did Monsanto manage to hide this behind a smoke screen of concerns about cancer? They probably have decent evidence against Roundup being carcinogenic. In their worst case they will need to turn over that evidence card. Given the insane cluster fuck our legal system has become, they will likely get another 50 years of thrashing about the cancer strawman. Business as usual while girls in farming regions are entering puberty at age six and becoming obese in their twenties. [Ref: my own eyeballs. Come and spend decades in the Midwest before you dismiss this reality.]
So fuck Monsanto/Bayer. Fuck the "bbbbut ... Capitalism" apologists. And fuck everyone who teaches that profits for the ultrawealthy justify ruining anyone's lives.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @02:48AM
> And fuck everyone who teaches that profits for the ultrawealthy justify ruining anyone's lives.
Along with blaming the corporations for making this stuff, you also have to blame the farmers that use it because it's "cost effective". They aren't forced to buy it, although perhaps to remain competitive with other farmers (who cave to the advertising) they are under economic pressure?
I knew at least one farmer (an early proponent of organic(*) farming post WWII, late 1940s) who rejected chemical agriculture from the start. He helped start the organic farming movement in PA and NY way back then when that group was considered "fringe" at best. A friend of my parents, he's had a big effect on my life, certainly a role model for "do your own thinking".
* in this case "organic" means something like using fertilizer and pest control that doesn't come from a chemical plant
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Monday August 13 2018, @04:22AM (2 children)
I'd prefer a peer-reviewed study or two rather than just an anecdote like that. So I went fishing for some. Here's one systematic review [nih.gov]:
Here's another one [nih.gov] on all non-cancer health outcomes:
Another systematic review [nih.gov] concludes:
Well, there's three systematic reviews of the scientific literature that show pretty much that the endocrine disruption effects of glyphosate aren't really there. There's even more systematic reviews debunking the cancer link. Note that these three papers I've found are meta-analyses and systematic reviews that take a systematic look at as much of the relevant literature as they can, so they're probably rather stronger than even single peer-reviewed studies. Perhaps then there's something else at work rather than Roundup that's causing your observations?
As much as Monsanto has done a lot of wickedness in its time (toxic waste dumping, Agent Orange, many others), I'd like to crucify them for something that actually has scientific evidence behind it rather than something as nebulous as that.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday August 13 2018, @08:52AM (1 child)
You yourself are guilty of the very same sophistry that Monsanto indulges in: your citations only studied glyphosate and not RoundUp.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @07:49PM
Roundup has been widely used for MANY decades.
If it were the superpoison some people think it is, you would have seen MANY, MANY cases of disease from it by now.
It's just not there. Still, it is prudent to minimize your exposure to any chemical.