Monsanto ordered to pay $289 million to man who claims Roundup weed killer caused cancer

Agribusiness giant Monsanto has been ordered by to pay $US289 million ($396 million) to a former school groundskeeper dying of cancer, with a San Francisco jury saying the company's popular Roundup weed killer contributed to his disease. The jury awarded $US250 million ($NZD380 million) in punitive damages and more than $US39 million ($NZD59 million) in compensatory damages to Dewayne Johnson who was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer at age 42 in 2014, according to news reports. “This should send a strong message to the boardroom of Monsanto.”

Monsanto has denied a link between the active ingredient in Roundup — glyphosate — and cancer, saying hundreds of studies have established that glyphosate is safe. “We are sympathetic to Mr Johnson and his family,” Monsanto said in a statement, but promised to appeal the ruling and “continue to vigorously defend this product, which has a 40-year history of safe use and continues to be a vital, effective and safe tool for farmers and others.”

 Johnson’s attorney Brent Wisner said the verdict “shows the evidence is overwhelming” that the product poses danger. Johnson, a California groundskeeper diagnosed in 2014 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma — a cancer that affects white blood cells — says he repeatedly used a professional form of Roundup while working at a school in Benicia, California. The Environmental Protection Agency has said that Roundup’s active ingredient is safe for people when used in accordance with label directions, but 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.
A jury in the U.S. state of California awards $289 million to a man who claims that his terminal cancer was caused by Monsanto's glyphosate-containing weed killer.