Last week was a victory and big step forward for the hundreds of cancer patients who have sued the agricultural company Monsanto, whose weedkiller Roundup they claim gave them cancer.
Last Friday, San Francisco jurors ruled that Roundup gave Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper who applied the weedkiller 20 to 30 times per year for work, terminal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was awarded $289 million in damages.
Throughout the past year, thousands of cancer patients, spouses, and estates have sued Monsanto, claiming Roundup caused cancer. Because Johnson’s doctors do not expect him to live much longer, his case was the first to go to trial. Friday’s victory could set a precedent for the thousands of other cases.
In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, “is probably carcinogenic to humans.” Monsanto has continued to deny this claim, maintaining that the IARC report is outnumbered by other studies that have found glyphosate does not cause cancer in humans. After Friday’s verdict, Monsanto issued a statement that it stands by the previous studies. However, according to Johnson’s attorney, Timothy Litzenburg, glyphosate isn’t the problem; Roundup is. According to CNN, Litzenburg said that “the interaction between glyphosate and other ingredients in Roundup cause a ‘synergistic effect’ that makes the product more carcinogenic.’
Talk to a Memphis Personal Injury Lawyer About Roundup
Litzenburg called Friday’s victory historic — “a big victory for human health worldwide” — especially since Roundup is used more than any other herbicide throughout the world. And indeed it is.
While nothing can change the fact that Dewayne Johnson — who is too crippled to speak on his worst days, and whose body is covered in lesions — may never live to see his two young sons grow up, the verdict brings justice to the family and can even help them live more comfortably and fully. After his diagnosis, his wife had to take on extra work to support the family and now works two 40-hour-per-week jobs.
Throughout my long career as a personal injury lawyer, I’ve come to learn that while victories in the courtroom can never fully account for the emotional toll of the most heartbreaking cases, they are the closest thing to justice that we have. For families like the Johnsons, who have not only had to watch a loved one suffer, but also been burdened with the financial cost of a devastating illness, compensation is more than worth fighting for.
If you believe a loved one has cancer because of Roundup, we are ready to fight and we want to hear from you. Call (901) 327-2100 or contact us here today.