Monsanto hit with $289 million judgment

A SAN FRANCISCO jury awarded a man dying of cancer $289 million, agreeing that Monsanto’s Roundup weed-killer contributed to his disease.

Monsanto, one of the nation’s biggest chemical and agribusiness corporations, was ordered Friday by a San Francisco jury to pay $289 million to a man dying of cancer. The jury concluded that the Roundup weed killer had affected DeWayne Johnson.

The Superior Court jury decided that the chemical had sickened Johnson, a former schools groundskeeper. He is suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The lawsuit contended that Monsanto should have labeled the product with information about possible health hazards.

Monsanto is denying that glyphosate, the key ingredient to Roundup, is linked to cancer. It also contended that the lymphoma probably had started years before he started his job with the school system.

There are hundreds of other lawsuits still pending, claiming that Roundup causes cancer. According to CBS News, while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers glyphosate to be safe when used properly, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, based in France, considers it to be a “probable human carcinogen.”