SAN FRANCISCO: Monsanto was ordered on Wednesday to pay some US$81 million (RM330 million) to an American retiree who blames his cancer on the agribusiness giant’s weedkiller Roundup.
A San Francisco jury found the firm had been “negligent by not using reasonable care” to warn of the risks of its product, ordering it to pay Edwin Hardeman US$75 million (RM305 million) in punitive damages, US$5.6 million (RM23 million) in compensation and US$200,000 (RM815,000) for medical expenses.
The jury also found that Roundup’s design was defective and that the product lacked sufficient warnings of potential risk.
The same jury previously found that a quarter century exposure to Roundup, whose principal ingredient is controversial chemical glyphosate, was a “substantial factor” in giving the 70-year-old Hardeman non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Hardeman’s attorneys, who cheered and hugged their client as the verdict was announced, said they were pleased the jury had unanimously ruled in his favor and that Monsanto was being held accountable for its actions.
“It is clear from Monsanto’s actions that it does not care whether Roundup causes cancer, focusing instead on manipulating public opinion and undermining anyone who raises genuine and legitimate concerns about Roundup,“ attorneys Aimee Wagstaff and Jennifer Moore said in a statement.
“It speaks volumes that not one Monsanto employee, past or present, came live to trial to defend Roundup’s safety or Monsanto’s actions.
“Today, the jury resoundingly held Monsanto accountable for its 40 years of corporate malfeasance and sent a message to Monsanto that it needs to change the way it does business.”
‘Back against the wall’
The case is one of more than 11,200 similar cases in the US alone involving Roundup.
Monsanto, which was bought by Bayer for US$63 billion (RM257 billion), has consistently denied that the weedkiller causes cancer and challenged findings by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which classified glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen” in 2015.
The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit, cheered the verdict.
“Clearly, the testimony that informed the jury’s decision was Bayer-Monsanto hiding Roundup’s carcinogenic properties, manipulating the science and cosying-up with EPA so it would not have to warn consumers of its dangerous product,“ said the group’s president Ken Cook.
“Bayer-Monsanto has known for decades the cancer-causing properties of Roundup and I applaud the jury for holding the company accountable for failing to warn consumers of the known danger.”
“This verdict puts Bayer’s back firmly up against the wall as the cost of litigation mounts and its stock price gets pummeled once again,“ he added. — AFP
