DeWayne “Lee” Johnson claimed that years of working with Roundup and Ranger Pro, both made by Monsanto, gave him terminal cancer.
Jurors in California superior court agreed the product contributed to Johnson’s cancer and the company should have provided a label warning of the potential health hazard. Johnson’s attorneys sought and won $39 million in compensatory damages and $250 million of the $373 million they wanted in punitive damages.
“This jury found Monsanto acted with malice and oppression because they knew what they were doing was wrong and doing it with reckless disregard for human life,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a member of Johnson’s legal team, told the Associated Press. “This should send a strong message to the boardroom of Monsanto.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Roundup’s active ingredient is safe for people when used in accordance with label directions.
However, the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization, classified it as a “probable human carcinogen” in 2015. California added glyphosate to its list of chemicals known to cause cancer..
A California jury on Friday ordered Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages to a former school groundskeeper who claims its weed killer Roundup gave him terminal cancer!
Monsanto said it will appeal.. but this could be the start of something .. floodgates for thousands of other pending lawsuits claiming the herbicide causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma may not have been opened.