On Wednesday, a US jury awarded $80 million to a man whose use of Roundup caused his cancer. It is the latest decision against the company facing thousands of similar lawsuits. Roundup is the glyphosate-based weed killer formerly owned by Monsanto. Bayer bought Roundup maker Monsanto last year for $63 billion.
The jury found the maker of Roundup liable for Edwin Hardeman’s cancer. It awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages after finding that Monsanto failed to warn people of the cancer risk associated with using the herbicide.
The jury also found that the company acted negligently and Roundup was defectively designed. Hardeman’s lawyers presented previously blocked internal documents they say showed the company’s efforts to influence scientists and regulators about the product’s safety.
Monsanto’s Roundup was the first herbicide to contain glyphosate, and now it is the world’s most widely used weed killer, however Bayer does not provide sales figures for the product.
Photo: “IMG_8430” by Global Justice Now is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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