In a groundbreaking case against agricultural giant Monsanto, a jury has awarded $250 million in punitive damages and nearly $40 million in compensatory damages to a former school groundskeeper who said he got terminal cancer from the weedkiller Roundup. Johnson was originally seeking about $400 million in punitive damages and $39 million in compensatory damages from Monsanto, his attorney Timothy Litzenburg said.
CNN reported last year that more than 800 patients were suing Monsanto, claiming Roundup gave them non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Since then, hundreds more plaintiffs -- including cancer patients, their spouses or their estates -- have sued the agricultural giant, making similar claims. Johnson's case was the first to go to trial because in court filings, doctors said he was near death; in California, dying plaintiffs can be granted expedited trials.
Johnson, 46, applied Roundup weedkiller 20 to 30 times per year while working as a groundskeeper for a school district near San Francisco, his attorneys said. He testified that during his work, he had two accidents in which he was doused with the product. The first accident happened in 2012. Two years later, in 2014, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. On bad days, Johnson is too crippled to speak. Lesions have covered as much as 80% of his body.
Litzenburg said the most heartbreaking part of Johnson's testimony was when the father of two described telling his sons that he had terminal cancer. Johnson's wife now works two 40-hour-per-week jobs to support the family, Litzenburg said.
In March 2015, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said the key ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, is "probably carcinogenic to humans. For the herbicide glyphosate, there was limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans for non-Hodgkin lymphoma."
However, Monsanto's corporate propagandists and lying soothsayers have for decades insisted that Roundup does not cause cancer, and that the IARC report is greatly outnumbered by studies saying glyphosate is safe.
"More than 800 scientific studies, the US EPA, the National Institutes of Health and regulators around the world have concluded that glyphosate is safe for use and does not cause cancer," said Scott Partridge, Monsanto's vice president of strategy. He highlighted the Agricultural Health Study, which studied the effects of pesticides and glyphosate products on farmers and their spouses from 1993 to 2013. "Many had already been using Roundup and other formulated products (since) it first came on the market," Partridge said.
A summary of that study said "no association was apparent between glyphosate and any solid tumors or lymphoid malignancies overall, including NHL (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). We all have sympathy for Mr. Johnson," Partridge said. "It's natural he's looking for answers. Glyphosate is not the answer."
Johnson's Attorney Litzenburg said glyphosate isn't the big problem -- Roundup is. He said the interaction between glyphosate and other ingredients in Roundup cause a "synergistic effect" that makes the product more carcinogenic.
Monsanto spokeswoman Charla Lord disputed that notion, saying regulatory authorities help ensure Roundup as a whole is safe. "The safety of each labeled use of a pesticide formulation must be evaluated and approved by regulatory authorities before it is authorized for sale."
What did Johnson have to prove?
"Cancer is a very difficult case to try," Litzenburg said. "You can't X-ray it or biopsy it and come back with what caused it." In this case, Monsanto was not required to prove anything. The burden of proof was on Johnson, the plaintiff.Johnson's team did not have to prove Roundup was the sole cause of his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The question was whether Roundup was a "substantial contributing factor" to Johnson's illness.
Johnson was originally seeking about $400 million in punitive damages and $39 million in compensatory damages from Monsanto, his attorney Timothy Litzenburg said.
CNN reported last year that more than 800 patients were suing Monsanto, claiming Roundup gave them non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Since then, hundreds more plaintiffs -- including cancer patients, their spouses or their estates -- have sued the agricultural giant, making similar claims. Johnson's case was the first to go to trial because in court filings, doctors said he was near death; in California, dying plaintiffs can be granted expedited trials.
Johnson, 46, applied Roundup weedkiller 20 to 30 times per year while working as a groundskeeper for a school district near San Francisco, his attorneys said. He testified that during his work, he had two accidents in which he was doused with the product. The first accident happened in 2012. Two years later, in 2014, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. On bad days, Johnson is too crippled to speak. Lesions have covered as much as 80% of his body.
"Under California law, that means Mr. Johnson's cancer would not have occurred but for his exposure to Roundup," Monsanto spokeswoman Lord said. She noted that it's possible his cancer could have developed from something unrelated to Roundup.
Fortunately, the jury did not agree....
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