Bayer must pay $78 million in latest Roundup cancer trial, jury finds

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

October 10, 2024 5:47 PM EDT Updated an hour ago


Oct 10 (Reuters) - Bayer (BAYGn.DE) must pay $78 million to a Pennsylvania man who said he got cancer from using the company's Roundup weedkiller, a state court jury in Philadelphia found on Thursday.

The verdict follows previous consecutive victories for Bayer in that court. The company had won 14 of the previous 20 trials over Roundup, though it has been hit with several massive verdicts in the litigation, including last November for $1.56 billion, later reduced to $611 million, and one in January for $2.25 billion, later reduced to $400 million.

Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, lawyers for plaintiff William Melissen and his wife, Margaret, said in a statement that Bayer had "acted with reckless indifference to people's safety." The company "still has not gotten the message that it needs to change its ways," they said. The jury awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages.

"We disagree with the jury's verdict, as it conflicts with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulatory bodies and their scientific assessments worldwide," Bayer said in a statement. The company said it believed it had a strong argument for reducing the punitive damages on appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that punitive damages should generally be no more than nine times compensatory damages.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/bayer-must-pay-78-mln-latest-roundup-cancer-trial-jury-finds-2024-10-10/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Was Roundup ever found liable for causing Parkinson's Disease?

[MontanaFarmer]

2. No. Paraquat is the parkinson's culprit.

Out west here where we still have some land "fallow" each year, roundup has completely lost its efficacy on broadleaf weeds, so now farmers are spraying multiple applications of paraquat on idle land each summer. In addition to roundup. It's madness. I've gone mostly organic because of it.

[twodogsbarking]

3. In the 70s there were warnings about Paraquat pot.

[MontanaFarmer]

5. Yes. It's a desiccant.

Defoliates anything it touches. So it was a useful tool in the "war on drugs," as it would nuke pot fields and any foliage hiding them from the air. Not dissimilar to the way agent orange was used in Vietnam, honestly. The active ingredient in paraquat and the 2,4,5T component of agent orange act in the same fashion on green foliage. And that is supposed to be accepted, along with glyphosate, as key cogs in a healthy production/food supply system? Yuck.

[womanofthehills]

7. And some northern farmers with shorter growing seasons are using Roundup as a desiccant

so they can harvest crops before frost and uniformly . Roundup is also used as a desiccant on the Florida & Louisiana sugar crops - supposedly makes sugar taste sweeter.. Good reason to always buy organic sugar. Corn, soy, oats, chick peas and almonds are some the heaviest Roundup sprayed crops.

[MontanaFarmer]

8. Lots of wheat from that part of the country also.

We don't do it out here because it ripens on its own. But I buy organic bread too. Ridiculous that it's used on chickpeas, would actually rather see quat used, at least it breaks down quickly.

[Scrivener7]

4. Why is that stuff still on the market??? Nevermind. We know why.

Because Bayer.

[progressoid]

6. And Adama Agricultural Solutions and BASF Cropscience AG and UPL Limited and Nufarm Limited and DuPont and

Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd
BASF
SEBayer Cropscience AG
UPL Limited
FMC Corporation
Zhejiang Xinan Chemical Industrial Group Company Ltd
Nufarm Limited
DuPont
Syngenta International
Dow AgroSciences

Bayer is changing the formula for residential use but the market is growing globally for it's use

https://cen.acs.org/environment/pesticides/Bayer-end-glyphosate-sales-US/99/web/2021/07