Georgia jury orders Monsanto parent to pay nearly $2.1 billion in Roundup weedkiller lawsuit

NEW YORK (AP) — A assemblage successful Georgia has ordered Monsanto genitor Bayer to wage astir $2.1 cardinal successful damages to a antheral who says the company's Roundup weed slayer caused his cancer, according to attorneys representing the plaintiff.

The verdict marks the latest successful a long-running bid of tribunal battles Monsanto has faced implicit its Roundup herbicide. The agrochemical elephantine says it volition entreaty the verdict, reached successful a Georgia courtroom precocious Friday, successful efforts to overturn the decision.

The penalties awarded see $65 cardinal successful compensatory damages and $2 cardinal successful punitive damages, instrumentality firms Arnold & Itkin LLP and Kline & Specter PC said successful a statement. That marks 1 of the largest ineligible settlements reached successful a Roundup-related lawsuit to date.

Plaintiff John Barnes filed his suit against Monsanto successful 2021, seeking damages related to his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Arnold & Itkin lawyer Kyle Findley, the pb proceedings lawyer connected the case, said the verdict volition assistance enactment his lawsuit successful a amended presumption to get the attraction helium needs going forward.

“It’s been a agelong roadworthy for him ... and helium was blessed that the information related to the merchandise (has) been exposed,” Findley told The Associated Press connected Sunday. He called the verdict an “important milestone” aft "another illustration of Monsanto’s refusal to judge work for poisoning radical with this toxic product.”

Germany-based Bayer, which acquired Monsanto successful 2018, has continued to quality claims that Roundup causes cancer. But the institution has been deed with much than 177,000 lawsuits involving the weedkiller and acceptable speech $16 cardinal to settee cases.

In a statement, Monsanto said Friday's verdict “conflicts with the overwhelming value of technological grounds and the statement of regulatory bodies and their technological assessments worldwide.” The institution added that it continues “to basal afloat down the safety” of Roundup products.

For a assortment of crops — including corn, soybeans and fabric — Roundup is designed to enactment with genetically modified seeds that defy the weedkiller’s deadly effect. It allows farmers to nutrient much portion conserving the ungraded by tilling it less.

Some studies subordinate Roundup’s cardinal ingredient, glyphosate, with cancer, though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it is not apt to beryllium carcinogenic to humans erstwhile utilized arsenic directed. Still, galore lawsuits implicit the weedkiller allege glyphosate does origin non-Hodgkin lymphoma, arguing that Monsanto has failed to pass the nationalist astir superior risks for years.

Findley said that grounds relating to Barnes' lawsuit amusement “many years of cover-ups" and “backroom dealings.” He accused Monsanto of ignoring respective technological studies related to the toxicity of Roundup and said the institution “tried to find ways to transportation and distract and contradict the transportation betwixt this merchandise and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”