Wall Street Journal writers Sara Randazzo and Ruth Bender reported today that, “A jury found that a man developed cancer from exposure to Roundup weedkiller he used in his yard, in the second case to go to trial over the alleged harms of the popular Bayer product.
“The six-person jury in U.S. District Court in San Francisco now is set to begin hearing evidence to separately weigh whether Bayer’s Monsanto unit should be held liable, a decision that could bring substantial financial damages against the company.
“The verdict issued Tuesday marks another setback for Bayer, which has come under intense pressure since a jury in August reached a $289.2 million verdict in the first case over the weedkiller to go to trial. That decision, which sent Bayer shares down sharply, came soon after the German company completed its acquisition of Monsanto Co.”
The Journal writers explained that, “Bayer faces lawsuits in the U.S. from about 11,200 farmers, home gardeners and landscapers claiming its glyphosate-based herbicides cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other cancers. Six more trials are due to start this year in federal and state courts.
“Bayer said Tuesday that it is disappointed with the jury’s decision but ‘we continue to believe firmly that the science confirms that glyphosate-based herbicides do not cause cancer‘ and that the second phase of the trial ‘will show that Monsanto’s conduct has been appropriate.'”
Today’s article added: “Tuesday’s verdict surprised Jonas Oxgaard, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. who follows the chemical and agricultural industries. ‘I genuinely thought with the first stage here focusing on the science, that [Bayer] would win,’ he said. ‘On the other hand, it’s a San Francisco jury.'”
