A California man was awarded $332 million Tuesday after filing a lawsuit against giant company Monsanto Co., claiming his Roundup weedkiller was responsible for causing his rare form of cancer.
Mike Dennis, a 57-year-old resident of Carlsbad, California, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2020, which he attributed to his decades of use of Roundup weedkiller. The lawsuit alleged that his illness was related to glyphosate, an active chemical in the product.
A San Diego Superior Court jury found that Monsanto, now a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Bayer, failed to provide adequate warnings about the risks associated with Roundup.
The multimillion-dollar verdict includes $7 million in compensatory damages and $325 million in punitive damages.
More than 4,000 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits alleging that Monsanto’s products have made them or their family members sick. Several of them have been awarded damages in excess of $20 million in their respective cases.
Mike Dennis, a 57-year-old resident of Carlsbad, California, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2020, which he attributed to his decades of use of Roundup weedkiller
Mike Dennis, a 57-year-old resident of Carlsbad, California, was awarded $332 million Tuesday in a lawsuit against giant corporation Monsanto Co., alleging that his Roundup weedkiller was responsible for a rare form of cancer he developed
A San Diego Superior Court jury ruled that Monsanto, now a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Bayer, failed to provide adequate warnings about the risks associated with Roundup
In a partial victory for Bayer, the jury found that the product’s design was not defective and that the company was not negligent.
Dennis had been using Roundup products for more than 30 years, said Adam Peavy, one of his attorneys NBC7San Diego.
‘He managed several homes for 35 years. He started spraying it with his father and in the mid-80s they mixed the concentrate. And then he switched to using the pre-made version that’s already done.”
Dennis suffered from rashes on his hands and feet for years before being diagnosed with a rare form of T-cell lymphoma — a cancer that starts in the white blood cells — in 2020, Peavy said.
Before he was diagnosed with cancer, he did not respond to treatments for psoriasis or eczema, the attorney added.
“He asked his doctor, and most doctors don’t know much about glyphosate in Roundup, but he… did some more research and finally contacted us,” Peavy said.
Dennis, a father of two sons, is a long-time resident of Carlsbad and enjoys surfing.
He was treated and has been in remission for almost three years, but there is no cure.
‘They got there quite early. He went through extensive treatment, it went away and we were lucky with that,” Peavy said.
‘The unfortunate reality of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is that there is no cure and Mike faces it every day wondering when it will come back.’
“His doctors have told him it will come back and we’re just waiting to see if that happens.”
In a statement to NBC7, Bayer said, “We respectfully disagree with the jury’s unfavorable verdict, although it found in favor of the company on two of the four claims.
The pharmaceutical giant stressed that ‘significant and reversible legal and evidentiary errors were made during this process.
“We have a winning record in the Roundup lawsuit – we have won nine of the last 12 lawsuits – and have resolved the majority of the claims in this lawsuit.”
Multiple plaintiffs, including Edwin Hardeman (left) and Dwayne Johnson (right), claim that a chemical called glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Johnson (pictured), a terminally ill gardener from California, won $289 million in August 2018 after the weedkiller was found to be giving him cancer
A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program last year found glyphosate, the cancer-causing ingredient, in more than 80 percent of urine samples from children and adults in the U.S.
The study found glyphosate in 1,885 of 2,310 urine samples from participants supposedly representing the U.S. population. Participants between the ages of six and eighteen made up one-third of the samples.
Bayer had to pay $10.9 billion in 2020 to settle thousands of U.S. lawsuits claiming Roundup causes cancer. The company is not admitting wrongdoing as part of the settlement package.
However, several plaintiffs have alleged that Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that starts in the white blood cells.
California resident Edwin Hardeman of Windsor filed suit in federal court in February 2016 and was awarded $80 million, later reduced to $25 million.
Dwayne Johnson, a terminally ill gardener from California, won $289 million in August 2018 after the weedkiller was found to be giving him cancer.
His damages award was later reduced to $21.5 million by a California appeals court.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Bayer’s appeal to overturn thousands of lawsuits in June 2022 claiming Roundup causes cancer, according to CBS News.
To avoid future lawsuits, Bayers announced in 2021, the company will replace its glyphosate products in the US residential market with a new formulation launching in 2023.
Roundup’s original maker, Monsanto, introduced the product in 1974 as a way to kill weeds while allowing plants and crops to flourish.
In March 2015, the World Health Organization ruled that the herbicide was “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Then in 2017, California named glyphosate, a cancer-causing ingredient under the state’s Proposition 65, which requires Roundup to carry a warning label if sold in California.
But in April 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reaffirmed that glyphosate does not cause cancer.
In June 2022, the Ninth Circuit filed a decision urging the EPA to reconsider its conclusion that Roundup’s glyphosate does not cause cancer and does not harm the environment.
Also that month, the Supreme Court rejected Bayer’s appeal in another Roundup case.