Johnson v. Monsanto Co.
Johnson v. Monsanto Co. was the first lawsuit to proceed to trial over Monsanto's Roundup herbicide product causing cancer. The lawsuit alleged that the exposure of glyphosate, an active ingredient in the Roundup product, caused Dewayne "Lee" Johnson's non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In a landmark verdict, Monsanto was ordered by a San Francisco jury to pay $289m in punitive damages and compensatory damages.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Monsanto appealed the verdict several times, but lost.[7]
Johnson's story was documented by Jennifer Baichwal in the 2022 documentary film Into the Weeds.[8]
Background
Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, the plaintiff in this case, sprayed hundreds of gallons of RoundUp over the course of his career as a school groundskeeper in Benicia, California.[9] Johnson was not worried about the dangers of RoundUp due to claimed insufficient labeling.[10] However, out of an abundance of caution, he wore safety equipment when he applied the chemical. On one occasion one of the sprayers he was using broke and he was drenched in RoundUp.[10] He cleaned himself to the best of his abilities and did not initially worry about the consequences.[10] After that incident, he began to get rashes and skin irritation.[10] Then, in 2014 at age 42, Johnson was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which he attributed to repeated exposure to RoundUp in his work as a groundskeeper.[9][11] In 2017, he was given a terminal diagnosis and was told that he would only live another 6 months.[9] Due to this diagnosis, his trial was expedited.[9]
Cancer risk assessments of glyphosate
There is limited evidence that human cancer risk might increase as a result of occupational exposure to large amounts of glyphosate, such as agricultural work, but no good evidence of such a risk from home use, such as in domestic gardening.[12] The consensus among national pesticide regulatory agencies and scientific organizations is that labeled uses of glyphosate have demonstrated no evidence of human carcinogenicity.[13] Organizations such as the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues and the European Commission, Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency, and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment[14] have concluded that there is no evidence that glyphosate poses a carcinogenic or genotoxic risk to humans. The final assessment of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority in 2017 was that "glyphosate does not pose a carcinogenic risk to humans".[15] The EPA has evaluated the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate multiple times since 1986. In 1986, glyphosate was initially classified as Group C: "Possible Human Carcinogen", but later recommended as Group D: "Not Classifiable as to Human Carcinogenicity" due to lack of statistical significance in previously examined rat tumor studies. In 1991, it was classified as Group E: "Evidence of Non-Carcinogenicity for Humans", and in 2015 and 2017, "Not Likely to be Carcinogenic to Humans".[16][17]
Timeline
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References
- ^ "Monsanto ordered to pay $289m as jury rules weedkiller caused man's cancer". the Guardian. August 11, 2018.
- ^ "The man who beat Monsanto: 'They have to pay for not being honest'". the Guardian. September 26, 2018.
- ^ Egelko, Bob (July 21, 2020). "Award to Vallejo groundskeeper in Monsanto cancer case slashed again — verdict upheld". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ Sullivan, Emily (November 1, 2018). "Groundskeeper Accepts Reduced $78 Million Award In Monsanto Cancer Suit". NPR.
- ^ "I Won a Historic Lawsuit, But May Not Live to Get the Money". Time.
- ^ "The man who beat Monsanto: 'They have to pay for not being honest'". TheGuardian.com. 26 September 2018.
- ^ "Bayer loses third appeals case over glyphosate weedkiller". Reuters. 10 August 2021.
- ^ "Hot Docs ’22: Jennifer Baichwal talks Hot Docs opening film “Into the Weeds”". RealScreen, April 28, 2022.
- ^ a b c d Dilbeck, Morgan (2020). "Monsanto: Creator of Cancer Liability?". DePaul business & commercial law journal. 18: 105–125 – via Hein Online.
- ^ a b c d "I Won a Historic Lawsuit, But May Not Live to Get the Money". Time. Retrieved 2022-05-30.
- ^ "Johnson v. Monsanto Co., Case No. 16-cv-01244-MMC | Casetext Search + Citator". casetext.com. Retrieved 2022-05-30.
- ^ "Food Controversies—Pesticides and organic foods". Cancer Research UK. 2016. Archived from the original on 2017-02-06. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ Tarazona, Jose V.; Court-Marques, Daniele; Tiramani, Manuela; Reich, Hermine; Pfeil, Rudolf; Istace, Frederique; Crivellente, Federica (3 April 2017). "Glyphosate toxicity and carcinogenicity: a review of the scientific basis of the European Union assessment and its differences with IARC". Archives of Toxicology. 91 (8): 2723–2743. doi:10.1007/s00204-017-1962-5. PMC 5515989. PMID 28374158.
- ^ "The BfR has finalised its draft report for the re-evaluation of glyphosate - BfR". Retrieved 2018-08-18.
- ^ Guston, David; Ludlow, Karinne (2010). "Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority". Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Society. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4129-6987-1.
- ^ US EPA, OCSPP (2017-12-18). "EPA Releases Draft Risk Assessments for Glyphosate" (Announcements and Schedules). US EPA. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
- ^ "Revised Glyphosate Issue Paper: Evaluation of Carcinogenic Potential". EPA. pp. 12–13. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
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