Berlin — Monsanto’s German owners insisted on
Saturday that weedkiller Roundup was "safe", rejecting a California
jury’s decision to order the chemical giant to pay nearly $290m for
failing to warn a dying groundskeeper that it might cause cancer.
While observers predicted thousands of potential future claims
against the company in the wake of Monsanto’s defeat, Bayer — which
recently acquired the US giant — said the California ruling went against
scientific evidence.
"On the basis of scientific conclusions, the views of worldwide
regulatory authorities and the decades-long practical experience with
glyphosate use, Bayer is convinced that glyphosate is safe and does not
cause cancer," the company said. Other courts with other juries might
"arrive at different conclusions" than the jury which ruled in the
California lawsuit, the first to accuse glyphosate of causing cancer.
Jurors unanimously found Monsanto — which vowed to appeal — had acted
with "malice" and that its weedkillers Roundup and the professional
grade version RangerPro contributed "substantially" to Dewayne Johnson’s
terminal illness.
Johnson, 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.
Bigger cause
"The cause is way bigger than me. Hopefully this thing will get the attention it needs," Johnson, 46, said after the verdict.
Johnson wept openly, as did some jurors, when he met the panel later.
The lawsuit built on 2015 findings by the International Agency for
Research on Cancer, part of the UN World Health Organisation, which
classified Roundup’s main ingredient glyphosate as a probable
carcinogen, causing the state of California to follow suit.
"We are sympathetic to Mr Johnson and his family," Monsanto said in a
statement, but promised to "continue to vigorously defend this
product".
"The jury got it wrong," Monsanto vice-president Scott Partridge told reporters.
But Johnson’s attorney Brent Wisner said the verdict "shows the evidence is overwhelming" that the product poses danger.
Wisner called the ruling the "tip of the spear" of litigation likely to come.
"The jury sent a message to the Monsanto boardroom that they have to
change the way they do business," said Robert F Kennedy Jr — an
environmental lawyer, son of the late US senator and a member of
Johnson’s legal team.
"You not only see many people injured, you see the corruption of
public officials, the capture of agencies that are supposed to protect
us from pollution and the falsification of science," he said.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in the US
state of Virginia, said the plaintiff’s evidence that Monsanto "knew or
should have known that Roundup caused his cancer" could benefit those
seeking damages from Monsanto, as well as encourage filings.
AFP
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