EXPOSURE

Roundup Weedkiller ‘Substantial Factor’ in Causing Man’s Cancer, Finds Jury

Man developed lymphoma after 26 years of using the glyphosate on poison oak.

A man developed cancer partly due to exposure to the Roundup weedkiller he used in his yard, a jury has found. The six-member jury delivered the unanimous verdict Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. It came seven months after a groundskeeper who claimed Roundup caused his cancer was awarded about $80 million in a separate case in California. Edwin Hardeman says he used Roundup to control poison oak for more than 20 years before he was diagnosed with blood cancer non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2015. The federal jury ruled the weedkiller, with the active ingredient glyphosate, was a “substantial factor” in causing his illness. The verdict concluded the first of two phases in the case about the possible health risks of Roundup and whether Monsanto misled Hardeman about those risks. The second phase will focus on whether Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer AG last year, should be held liable for partly causing Hardeman’s cancer. Bayer denies that Roundup was the cause of his illness.