DIGGING DEEPER

Monsanto Lawsuit: Federal Jury Awards Man $80 Million in Another Roundup-Cancer Case

San Francisco panel found chemical giant continually covered up weedkiller’s lethal dangers.

A federal jury in San Francisco has awarded more than $80 million to a Sonoma County man who was diagnosed with cancer after spraying Roundup weedkiller on his property for nearly three decades, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The jury found Monsanto Co. covered up the dangers of its weedkiller and ruled that the herbicide’s active ingredient, glyphosate, was a “substantial factor” in causing Edwin Hardeman’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hardeman was awarded $200,000 for economic losses and more than $5 million for past and future pain and suffering. Jurors awarded an additional $75 million in punitive damages after finding that Monsanto Co. had acted with “malice or oppression.” Earlier this month, the jury found that Hardeman had also proven Roundup was a likely cause of his cancer, rejecting Monsanto’s argument that all credible regulators, including the Environmental Protection Agency, had approved the weedkiller for use, the Chronicle reports. Last year, a state court jury in San Francisco awarded $289 million to another groundskeeper who claimed that Roundup contributed to his terminal cancer.

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