DANGEROUS CHEMICALS

Jury Awards $289 Million to Man Who Blames Cancer on Weed Killer

Dewayne Johnson used Roundup heavily before getting diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

A San Francisco jury has awarded $289 million to a groundskeeper who claimed that Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer contributed to his now-terminal cancer, the Associated Press reports. Dewayne Johnson, who had long exposures to the weed killer while working on school grounds, developed a rash, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014. The state court claimed that the company “failed to adequately warn of the risks” of the product while Johnson was heavily using it. Monsanto argued that Johnson’s cancer had started developing before he used the product, and that its active ingredient, glyphosate, has no ties to cancer. Earlier this year, the FDA reportedly found that weed killer formulations were “killing” cells.