Second US jury finds Roundup weed killer caused man’s cancer News
© WikiMedia (Sebastian Rittau)
Second US jury finds Roundup weed killer caused man’s cancer

A jury in a San Fransisco federal court on Tuesday found that Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused a man’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

This lawsuit is only the second of 11,200 Roundup lawsuits to be tried against Monsanto Company and Bayer for cancer-causing Roundup. The first verdict was rendered in August for $289 million against Monsanto. This was the first blow to Bayer after buying the company despite its long history of “environmental malfeasance”.

The plaintiff, Edwin Hardeman, was diagnosed with large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma in February 2015, nearly 35 years after he began using the product to kill poison ivy on his property. He filed the lawsuit against Monsanto and 50 other defendants in 2016, but Bayer was not joined until 2018 when it bought Monsanto for $63 billion.

The verdict marks the first of three phases the trial will go through before rendering a final decision as to the liable defendants and the damages to be awarded to Hardeman. During the second phase, Hardeman’s lawyers will present evidence to show that Monsanto knew glyphosate was harmful and likely cancer-causing, yet the company ignored the dangers and even concealed them from consumers.