Landscapers will want to take note that Monsanto’s almost ubiquitous weed killer, Roundup, has been hit with massive penalties in recent court cases that determined that the glyphosate-based product caused cancer in plaintiffs.
Last month, a jury awarded a couple $2 billion (yes, with a B) in punitive damages after concluding that Roundup had caused their cancer.
In March, after five days of deliberations a jury in San Francisco concluded that the chemical was responsible for a 70-year-old man’s non-Hodgkins lymphoma. And last August, another jury in San Francisco awarded a former groundskeeper $289-million in damages for his cancer. That fee was later reduced to $78 million. Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, insists “we continue to believe firmly that the science confirms glyphosate-based herbicides do not cause cancer.”
There are currently more than 13,000 lawsuits on the books linking Roundup with cancer.