A former school groundskeeper who said he got terminal cancer from the weed killer Roundup has won big in court.
Dewayne Johnson learned the verdict last night in a San Francisco courtroom.
Was the Roundup pro or Ranger pro design a substantial factor in causing harm to Mr. Johnson? Answer Yes,” Judge Suzanne Bolanos said.
Johnson says he applied Roundup 20 to 30 times a year as a school groundskeeper.
He says that in 20-14, he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
His lawyer says the jury awarded Johnson 289 million dollars in damages.
“Monsanto for forty years has been taking the playbook back industry, ghostwriting science. Buying science, using all the different…strategies and illegal strategies to confuse the science, to blur the science and I’m so glad that this jury held them accountable,” The plaintiff’s attorney, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.
Monsanto has long maintained that Roundup does not cause cancer, and that regulators help ensure it is safe.
“Frankly, that shocked me. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we did. And that certainly will be a very closely, closely argued point,” Monsanto Vice President Scott Partridge said.
The company plans to appeal.
