Monsanto Loses: Jury Awards Millions to Man Dying of Cancer Due to Herbicide Glyphosate – What’s Next?

This past Friday (August 10, 2018) a jury in California awarded Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper who is dying of cancer that he claims is the result of years of using the herbicide RoundUp which contains glyphosate, $39 million in damages, and another $250 million was levied against Monsanto for covering up the scientific evidence that glyphosate causes cancer. This is the first legal blow against Monsanto for its herbicide product, which is the world's most common herbicide, spread on crops all over the world. In recent years, laboratory testing on urine and mother's breast milk shows that almost the entire world's population contains glyphosate in their bodies. Health Impact News has covered this story for years now, and we published an interview with Dr. Anthony Samsel back in 2015, when he was able to obtain formerly concealed documents from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealing the toxic nature and cancer risk of the ingredients in the herbicide RoundUp, but were concealed from the public due to "trade secrets." Much of the pre-trial legal maneuvering was centered around what evidence was going to be allowed in the trial. In the end, in spite of what appeared to be at some points a biased judge, enough evidence was presented to the jury to conclude Monsanto was guilty. What's next?

Monsanto Glyphosate Cancer Trial Update: Biased Judge? Key Evidence Not Allowed

The California trial against Monsanto by Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old former school groundskeeper, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma four years ago and claims that Monsanto hid evidence that the active ingredient in its Roundup herbicide, glyphosate, caused his cancer, is nearing the end, where a jury will decide on a verdict. One of the attorneys of the Plaintiff, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has been giving updates that are being posted on the Organic Consumers Association website. In a recent update, Mr. Kennedy reported on some of the actions of Judge Bolanos that seemed to suggest that the judge could be potentially biased in favor of Monsanto by not allowing some key evidence, some of which seems to contradict what another judge, Judge Curtis Karnow, seemed to rule was admissible in pre-trial hearings. In spite of these limitations, Mr. Kennedy feels that the trial is going their way as it is finishing up and being delivered to the jury.

Judge: 300 Cases Against Monsanto Claiming Glyphosate Causes Cancer Can Continue

Hundreds of lawsuits against Monsanto Co by cancer survivors or families of those who died can proceed to trial, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday, finding there was sufficient evidence for a jury to hear the cases that blame the company's glyphosate-containing weed-killer for the disease. The decision by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco followed years of litigation and weeks of hearings about the controversial science surrounding the safety of the chemical glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's top-selling weed-killer.

German Company Bayer Approved to Buy Out Monsanto: “A Marriage Made in Hell”?

The recent Monsanto-Bayer merger has been approved by both American and European continent authorities, merging two of the world's top seed biotech companies and producers of genetically modified seeds. Bayer, a company based out of Germany, is a name most often associated with aspirin in the United States and around the world. But even before this merger, they already hold a huge market share of seed production. Bayer is somewhat constrained in developing their GMO products, as Germany bans the cultivation of GMO crops. Most of Bayer's GMO development is done in the USA, and by purchasing Monsanto, they will become, by far, the largest GMO company in the world. This has prompted some to refer to the Bayer-Monsanto merger as "A Marriage Made in Hell."

Will Monsanto Finally Stand Trial for Cancer-causing Herbicide Glyphosate?

A California Superior Court ruled last week that a man dying of cancer, who is suing Monsanto, can present evidence that Monsanto covered up research linking glyphosate to cancer. Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Roundup, the world's most prevalent herbicide used in agriculture, that has been found in 93% of Americans' urine, most mothers' breast milk, and is probably residing inside of every person alive on planet Earth. Provided that the trial will go forward without any more legal maneuvering by Monsanto, 46-year-old DeWayne Johnson, who has terminal cancer and only months left to live, will take the stand against Monsanto in a California court on June 18, in what is being called a "Landmark Lawsuit." Last week Judge Curtis Karnow issued an order clearing the way for jurors to consider not just scientific evidence related to what caused Johnson’s cancer, but allegations that Monsanto suppressed evidence of the risks of its weed killing products. Karnow ruled that the trial will proceed and a jury would be allowed to consider possible punitive damages. There are more than 4,000 other cancer victims who have filed lawsuits against Monsanto since the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published a report linking glyphosate to non-Hodgkin lymphoma back in 2015. Therefore, should this case actually make it to trial, and DeWayne Johnson gets his day in court before a jury, it could set quite a precedent.

Judge to Decide if Monsanto Roundup Cancer Lawsuits Move Forward

A federal judge in San Francisco will hear from expert witnesses on the science and safety of glyphosate at critical hearing starting Monday that will determine if plaintiffs around the country can move forward with their legal action against Monsanto over cancer claims. More than 365 pending lawsuits against the agribusiness giant have been centralized in multidistrict litigation under U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria. The plaintiffs claim they or their loved ones developed non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) due to exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller. During the week-long hearing—dubbed "Science Week"—epidemiologists, oncologists, toxicologists and other scientists representing both sides will offer testimony about glyphosate. The judge will not decide whether or not glyphosate causes cancer. Rather, Chhabria will determine if the experts providing scientific opinions regarding causation will be permitted to testify at trial, explained Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, one of the law firms leading the litigation.

Monsanto Weed Killer Is Killing Humans

The story with Monsanto’s round that begins as early as the 1980s when laboratory tests on glyphosate began to show cellular changes in laboratory animals that should’ve been considered early signals of a relationship clearly to cancer. In fact, in 1985 the EPA determined that glyphosate, which is the primary ingredient in Roundup, needed to be classified as a Class C carcinogen, which meant that it clearly is suggested of a relationship to cancer. But then miraculously for some reason six years later the EPA suddenly changed that classification to something just the opposite. Now they were saying that they were wrong to classify it as a possible carcinogen and that the public had nothing to worry about when using products that contained this chemical. That was their change. Then all of a sudden the laboratory data from the early ’80s that the EPA use to classify glyphosate as cancer suddenly became unavailable to the public. Why? Because Monsanto argued that all the early testing results for this chemical fell under a protection of trade’s secret rule, meaning they didn’t have to share this information with the general public. It was theirs. They were going to keep it quiet. Joining me now to talk about this is Carey Gillam, author of the book Whitewash: The Story of Weed Killer, Cancer, and Corruption of Science.

Monsanto Pressured Journal to Retract Study Linking Cancer to Roundup Herbicide

Internal Monsanto documents released by attorneys leading US cancer litigation show that the company launched a concerted campaign to force the retraction of a study that revealed toxic effects of Roundup. The documents also show that the editor of the journal that first published the study entered into a contract with Monsanto in the period shortly before the retraction campaign began. The study, led by Prof GE Séralini, showed that very low doses of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide had toxic effects on rats over a long-term period, including serious liver and kidney damage. Additional observations of increased tumour rates in treated rats would need to be confirmed in a larger-scale carcinogenicity study. The newly released documents show that throughout the retraction campaign, Monsanto tried to cover its tracks to hide its involvement. Instead Monsanto scientist David Saltmiras admitted to orchestrating a “third party expert” campaign in which scientists who were apparently independent of Monsanto would bombard the editor-in-chief of the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT), A. Wallace Hayes, with letters demanding that he retract the study.

Federal Court Unseals Documents Revealing Glyphosate Herbicide Fraud – Forces Mainstream Media to Cover Story

Health Impact News reported on the alleged fraud of sealed documents that the U.S. EPA had in their possession that showed glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, was harmful and linked to cancer back in 2015. According to Dr. Anthony Samsel, the author of several published studies showing the toxicity of glyphosate, these documents were sealed as "trade secrets." He was able to obtain copies of the documents and discussed his findings in an interview back in 2015. Samsel states that these problems with glyphosate causing cancer and other health problems were known to the EPA back in the 1970s. Unfortunately, this news was completely ignored by the mainstream media. Earlier this month (March 2017) however, Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco federal court, who is presiding over litigation brought by people who claim to have developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a result of exposure to glyphosate, ordered many sealed files on glyphosate to be unsealed in pending litigation against Monsanto. This was big news, and the mainstream media was forced to cover it.

Scotts-Monsanto GMO Grass Threatens National Forests, Rivers, Ranchers, and Farmers

Over a decade ago, Scotts partnered with Monsanto to market a GM bentgrass resistant to glyphosate (Roundup). It was planted next to the Malheur National Forest in test plots ostensibly controlled by Oregon State University. Unbeknownst to most people, it was also planted all over the US—in California, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and seventeen other states. It was supposed to be confined and controlled, but it very quickly escaped and spread out of the test plots in Oregon into Idaho, and crossbred with natural grasses to create new breeds that were also resistant to glyphosate. It clogged up irrigation ditches, threatening food crops and contaminating pasture-raised cattle with GMOs. In addition to the immediate threats to farmers and ranchers, grass seed—which is among Oregon’s top five commodities—is now under threat. Initially, Scotts-Monsanto tried to stop the spread and clean up the contamination. But it was unable to do so because the original bentgrass (and now the other grasses it cross-pollinated with) are glyphosate-resistant. More toxic herbicides have been brought in to try to keep irrigation ditches clear, and to stop the grasses from clogging and eventually killing waterways important to wildlife and humans.