Courts Making Bayer/Monsanto Pay for Their Poison

Juries are awarding victims of glyphosate with massive amounts in damages. We’ve been reporting for years on the negative health effects of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Roundup herbicide. While world bodies like the World Health Organization say that glyphosate is a “probable carcinogen,” the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains that glyphosate is safe. Let’s not forget, though, that cronyism mars the EPA decision: unsealed court documents showed that a top EPA official (Jess Rowland) promised Monsanto he would quash efforts by the Department of Health to conduct its own review of glyphosate. So much for the federal government protecting the interests of people rather than special interests. There has been progress in the courts, however. Last year, a jury awarded $289 million (later reduced to $78 million by a judge) to a school groundskeeper who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma from the use of Roundup. In March 2019, a California plaintiff was awarded $80 million under similar circumstances. Then on May 12, 2019, a jury awarded plaintiffs $2 billion in punitive damages and $55 million in compensatory damages—they, too, developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after years of using the Roundup herbicide on their property. There are now 13,400 cases pending that allege Roundup causes cancer. We hope these legal developments accomplish what government regulators were unable (or unwilling) to do: get glyphosate off the market for good.