$2 Billion Verdict Against Monsanto/Bayer for Cancer Causing RoundUp Product

$2 Billion Verdict Against Monsanto/Bayer for Cancer Causing RoundUp Product

A jury in Oakland, California, has awarded a couple $2 billion in punitive damages after concluding that sustained exposure to Monsanto Co.’s popular Roundup weed killer led to their cancer diagnoses. The couple will receive an additional $55 million for pain and suffering and to cover medical expenses. This is the third case the courts ruled that Monsanto’s product caused cancer in an individual. The court also found that Monsanto spent millions of dollars on covert public relations campaigns to finance ghostwritten studies and articles aimed at discrediting independent scientists whose work found dangers with Monsanto’s herbicides. 

“The cloud hanging over Bayer will only grow bigger and darker, as more juries hear how Monsanto manipulated its own research, colluded with regulators and intimidated scientists to keep secret the cancer risks from glyphosate.” 

R. Brent Wisner, said in a statement sent to CBS News. “Instead of investing in sound science, they invested millions in attacking science that threatened their business agenda.”

A jury in Oakland, California, has awarded a couple $2 billion in punitive damages after concluding that sustained exposure to Monsanto Co.’s popular Roundup weed killer led to their cancer diagnoses. The couple will receive an additional $55 million for pain and suffering and to cover medical expenses. 

(Press Conference)

Among the many revelations that have emerged from the trials:

  • Monsanto never conducted epidemiology studies for Roundup and its other formulations made with the active ingredient glyphosate to evaluate the cancer risks for users.
  • Monsanto was aware that the surfactants in Roundup were much more toxic than glyphosate alone.
  •  Monsanto spent millions of dollars on covert public relations campaigns to finance ghostwritten studies and articles aimed at discrediting independent scientists whose work found dangers with Monsanto’s herbicides.
  • When the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry sought to evaluate glyphosate toxicity in 2015, Monsanto engaged the assistance of EPA officials to delay that review.
  • Monsanto enjoyed a close relationship with certain officials within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who have repeatedly backed Monsanto’s assertions about the safety of its glyphosate products.
  • The company internally had worker safety recommendations that called for wearing a full range of protective gear when applying glyphosate herbicides, but did not warn the public to do the same.

Cancer causing RoundUp used in Residential Landscaping

Seventy-six-year-old Alva and 74-year-old Alberta Pilliod used Roundup for about 30 years for residential landscaping, which the jury believed played a “substantial factor” in their development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Alva was diagnosed in 2011; his wife, Alberta, received the same diagnosis four years later. They are both in remission.

This is the third lawsuit related to Roundup that Monsanto has lost in the state of California. Wisner co-represented plaintiffs in the prior two lawsuits as well. In the first, school groundskeeper Dewayne “Lee” Johnson was ultimately awarded $78.5 million. Johnson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014 and regularly spraying a high-concentration version of Roundup known as Ranger Pro as part of his job from 2012 to 2016.

A California federal court jury awarded more than $80 million to Edwin Hardeman, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgekin’s lymphoma in 2015. Hardeman had used Roundup for more than 25 years on his Sonoma property.

“Finally,” wrote a Facebook com mentor, “we might just see all the cancer causing weed killer products off the shelf! Not just roundup, but all containing glyphosate!” 

What About the Farmers

As a state filled with agriculture as a main livelyhood we feel deeply for the vulnerable farmers who were sold the lies of Monsanto with GMO roundup ready seeds & pressured to use as well as the pre-harvest spraying of crops with Roundup to desiccate the crop for “easier” harvesting. We truly hope they are the next to be compensated! 

How will our agriculture will find a way back from the lies & control of Monsanto? We believe it can with the support of the consumer! 

ACT NOW TO STOP THE SPRAY OF Cancer Causing Toxins on our schools and parks 

Eliminate Glyphosate Petition – Health Freedom Idaho

LEARN MORE ABOUT GLYPHOSATE – ROUNDUP

Alternative to RoundUp for Weeds

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