Wow! Jury rules weedkiller caused man's cancer - Monsanto ordered to pay $289m

[womanofthehills]

Monsanto suffered a major blow with a jury ruling that the company was liable for a terminally ill man’s cancer, awarding him $289m in damages.

Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old former groundskeeper, won a huge victory in the landmark case on Friday, with the jury determining that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused his cancer and that the corporation failed to warn him of the health hazards from exposure. The jury further found that Monsanto “acted with malice or oppression”.

Johnson’s lawyers argued over the course of a month-long trial in San Francisco that Monsanto had “fought science” for years and targeted academics who spoke up about possible health risks of the herbicide product. Johnson was the first person to take the agrochemical corporation to trial over allegations that the chemical sold under the brand Roundup causes cancer.

In the extraordinary verdict, which Monsanto said it intends to appeal, the jury ruled that the company was responsible for “negligent failure” and knew or should have known that its product was “dangerous”.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/monsanto-ordered-pay-289m-jury-223836772.html

[at140]

1. More business for Lawyers!

Now coming to town soon..Appeals!

Did anyone hear about the lawyer who moved to a smaller town which had no lawyers. But he was having a hard time getting business and was about to move to a big city.

Right about that time another lawyer moved in that town.

Then there was plenty business for both, and both became rich.

[elleng]

4. Would you have it otherwise?

[at140]

10. I actually like court fights

especially litigation against large corporations.
My daughter is attorney and works in that field.

[elleng]

11. Good for her!

[womanofthehills]

6. Also now coming thousands of cases of poisoned farmers right behind this case

carey gillam
?Verified account @careygillam
2h2 hours ago

"People are going to start to wake up and regulatory agencies are going to be called to task to stop bending over to @MonsantoCo." @RobertKennedyJr said. "This case is going to cause a cascade of many, many more."

[Farmer-Rick]

8. Well Monsatan could stop pushing environmental poisons

That deadly Round Up will also fu** with your kidneys.

Every time my neighbor decides to spray Round Up on our shared fence line, I lose livestock...a lamb, several chickens, a dog. He sprayed so much Round Up that with every rain his poison washes on to my evergreen ground cover and kills large swatches of it. I gave up planting raspberries along the bank by the fence because they kept dying. Yet they grow like weeds everywhere else. Funny though the Round Up doesn't seem to bother my Japanese Cherry Trees.

[at140]

12. I did not use Roundup when I had a large yard

It was strictly hand weeding. And my yard was beautiful.
Here is a pic of the backyard...

[Farmer-Rick]

13. Wow that's beautiful.

I'm an organic farmer and don't use poisons either. My neighbor does because I've asked him not to. And he doesn't like me much.

My farm does have weeds and isn't as nice as your place. But I also have a lot of wildlife and they appreciate the weedy places.

[at140]

16. That is the only house I regret selling !! more pics...

Good for you trying to produce chemicals free food!


[/IMG]

[Farmer-Rick]

17. That is a lot of work

You did good. Amazing you can get such great results without pouring poisons everywhere. Sometimes people reach for chemicals just because they are there.

[at140]

20. Only chemicals I used were fertilizers

Grass fertilizers and the blue evergreen fertilizer.
I do not think they were harmful. No weed killers.
Would you believe it took me 5 years to do the landscaping?
But I was retired and only 59 years old. Had the energy.
It was too much work to maintain the yard. The Camelia's were the worse! They had these huge flowers in spring which were very pretty but they all dropped after a few weeks and was a bitch collecting them from the red lava rocks. And they grew too much, requiring trimming. Wish I had planted Rhode's instead.

Now living in a condo, where someone else takes care
of the landscaping, haha.

[Captain Stern]

40. Going by your pics, great job on your yard

It looks the way I was trying to get my yard to look when I had a yard.

I haven't downsized to a condo yet, but I've downsized to a place with a 'yard' the size of a postage stamp......I can mow my lawn in 7 minutes....with an electric push mower.

I think for a lot of folks there comes a point where you realize that that the yard you thought you owned, actually owns you. When taking care of it, stops being fun, and becomes a chore, it's time to move on.

[at140]

41. Exactly...so true...the yard owns you!

It requires constant attention, limits travel, not to mention cost of maintenance. Living in a condo, we can leave for a 2 week long trip instantly.

[pazzyanne]

24. I lived on a farm where the landlord could not keep kittens alive

and some of the adult cats were doing poorly. He thought it was feline distemper. He also used a lot of round up spraying his 3 acre farm yard on a regular basis. I told him if he wanted his cat and kitten problem solved, he had to stop the spraying. By the end of the summer, we had not lost one cat or kitten on just that one simple action. In fact, most of the farms in that area now have the ancestors of those cats and kittens keeping their farm yards rodent free. I myself use a homemade non toxic weed killer that is very effective. You have to be careful where and when you spray, but it doesn't kill or make the animals sick either.

[sarah FAILIN]

31. Is this your recipe?

Dawn dish detergent, Epsom salts, and hot vinegar?

[pazzyanne]

36. It sure is!

1 gallon white vinegar
1 cup Epson salts
2 tbsp. Dawn dish soap

Works great, just don't get it anywhere you want to grow things. I use it in landscaping areas with rock, around grown trees, and along my driveway, etc.

[sarah FAILIN]

44. Mine too!

I used it the first time this summer and need to do it again since my weeds are out of control again.

[ToxMarz]

25. Paid for multi-billion $$ bad actors killing people

Yes lawyers can really suck, but they can also accomplish amazing things.

Maybe you should start a "tort reform" group here, I'm sure it would be popular.

Welcome to DU by the way!

[samnsara]

2. oh hell i believe it! Im fostering my elderly fathers two dogs and they are covered in warts!...

...we couldn't keep dad from using Round Up. I even showed him all the data about cancer..then he accidentally sprayed my moms apple tree. But he was in his 90s and old Marine Vet..he knew best! So now I have the dogs and they are 6 and 8 and they have all these ugly tag warts all over them. Its gross.

[elleng]

3. 'with malice or oppression".'

[UTUSN]

5. Well, yes. We tried it in nam, now I do it in my yard, habits hard to break

[womanofthehills]

21. Very bad idea because then you and your animals track it into your house

and your carpets become contaminated with Roundup. Also, when you spray, it gets onto your clothes and those clothes should always be washed separately from your other clothes.

I was poisoned with malathion by the city of Albuquerque's mosquito spraying program in the late 90's. In fact, my whole neighborhood became ill and many developed reactive airway disease, asthma and bad digestive problems.

[UTUSN]

23. Yea, I'm always wrong.

[jberryhill]

26. You're right!

[UTUSN]

43. 1.Very funny. 2.I'm not a masochist answering. (Two more examples of my being wrong.)

[UTUSN]

42. I doubt that I will ever try to break my annoying habit of spouting off for supposed yuks.

With the concomitant necessity of going back to clarify, to wit:

I have never, ever used Round-up, became aware of the problem when Agent Orange made it all an issue and have seen the news items specifically about Round-up over the years.

I am here, a DU member, and can be assumed on the face of this to subscribe entirely to all of the different parts of the Democratic agenda, here specifically to the safeguards for the environment and health.

Also, "Moderation in all things" and "I contradict myself," so there are things I modify for reasons of my means and sometimes my convenience. So, as an old Boomer, meaning a post-pseudo-Hippie (who volunteered into the military at the height of Vietnam, on the basis of economic necessity), I was aware of being "natural". Where I live, "natural" might well be scrub brush wilderness, and organic gardening for a Versailles product is not appealing, not only because of the economics and wastrel watering but because I am alienated by "high art" aesthetics. Iow, I don't do landscaping, just water perimeter bushes for privacy and a few flowering trees. Other than that, if I didn't have weeds I wouldn't have any ground cover at all, haha.

So, for quite a few years I went after the egregious tall weeds (who also have a right to exist, btw) with a hoe. And by this I mean, one by one, every single one. And gathering them up to dispose of so as not to SOW the seeds as much as possible. This got to be a tremendous investment of time and energy, a pain in whatever anatomical part is acceptable to name, and it made very real an existential question about whether this was what I wanted to devote a major chunk of living to. Besides that my big plan that hoeing would eventually rid them all, fewer each year, didn't pan out since some seeds come flying in from the outside, not limited to the ones home grown.

All that said (you see how my smart aleck remarks are shorthand for all these words?), I resorted to using OTHER (herbicides?), perhaps fooling myself about not using Round-up. Reasons of MEANS, CONVENIENCE. I don't delude myself into thinking that these other things that are not Round-up aren't doing me doing me harm, am just evidencing one of the traits of human nature, risking on the change of getting away with it (for now).

So, SINCERELY, womanofthehills, I am with you all the way (my "part" of the way?), admire your conviction (my "part"?), your ringing true. And thank you for not snapping back at my smart aleck trash. I ought to at least limit it to Lounge type topics, not like to yours here.

[lunasun]

7. Our US tax payer federal depts won't tell us how bad it even is . Thanks to other countries we know

Separately, FDA chemist Narong Chamkasem found “over-the-tolerance” levels of glyphosate in corn, detected at 6.5 parts per million, an FDA email states. The legal limit is 5.0 ppm. An illegal level would normally be reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but an FDA supervisor wrote to an EPA official that the corn was not considered an “official sample”.

Other findings detailed in the FDA documents show that in 2016 Chamkasem found glyphosate in numerous samples of honey. Chamkasem also found glyphosate in oatmeal products. The FDA temporarily suspended testing after those findings, and Chamkasem’s lab was “reassigned to other programs”, the FDA documents show. The FDA has said those tests were not part of its official glyphosate residue assignment.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/30/fda-weedkiller-glyphosate-in-food-internal-emails
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/09/monsanto-trial-roundup-weedkiller-cancer-dewayne-johnson#img-1
Mr. Johnson only in his 40s

[TheFrenchRazor]

37. our entire government is owned by corporations. it's official now. nt

[lunasun]

38. +1 yes

[Cha]

9. Good! 'Bout time reality sets in on Monsanto.

Poor guy I hope he's ok.

Of course Monsanto will "appeal".. they don't care that their weed killer kills more that weeds.

[womanofthehills]

15. He's not ok. His dr said he only has months to live.

?

Verified account @careygillam
42m42 minutes ago

After $289 million verdict @MonsantoCo says will appeal; Johnson attorneys say they will ask for expedited handling given Johnson’s terminal diagnosis. Next up - a trial set for St. Louis where attorneys say even more damning internal documents will be revealed #Rounduptrial

Carey Gillam wrote the book "Whitewash" - exposing Monsanto & Roundup's toxcity. She is the Research Dir. of US Right to Know and used to be a Reuter's journalist. I follow her on twitter as she has the latest updates.

[Cha]

19. Oh Ohhh.. Sorry!

Mahalo, Womanofthehills.

I got away from the West side of Kauai to the other side of the Island because when I moved back there in 2010 they were spraying roundup all over the place. Even though there were those who said it wouldn't hurt you.. I knew better.

[lunasun]

29. St Louis is thier corp headqtrs next trial there should reveal more hidden docs then a consolidated

group of 400 farmers and landscapers I believe , but there are plenty after that group.
Today was just the beginning

“This verdict proves that when ordinary citizens, in this case a jury of 12, hear the facts about Monsanto’s products, and the lengths to which this company has gone to buy off scientists, deceive the public and influence government regulatory agencies, there is no confusion,” said Ronnie Cummins, OCA’s international director. “This is a company that has always put profits ahead of public safety, and today, Monsanto has finally been held accountable.
https://www.organicconsumers.org/press/monsanto-loses-landmark-case-roundup-weedkiller-case-jury-awards-290m-cancer-victim

Monsanto faces 5,000 lawsuits nationwide alleging Roundup caused cancer, mainly in state courts

This doesn't even address the non cancerous kidney disease seen around the world from use!


Dicamba new Xtend Max is the next product outed hopefully
Monsanto
“For 2018, we’re projecting approximately 50 million acres of Xtend soybeans and cotton were planted across the United States.

“What we project for 2019 is over 60 million acres.

“So, we went from 25 million acres in 2017 to a doubling of 50 million acres this year and expect that to continue to rise for 2019.”
.....................
Dicamba has also been implicated in canine malignant lymphoma, raising the risk by as much as 70 percent in some dogs following exposure. Another study4 found that dogs exposed to garden and lawn chemicals such as 2,4-D, dicamba and 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxypropionic acid, have higher incidence of bladder cancer.

Breeds with a genetic predisposition for bladder cancer, including Beagles, certain Terrier breeds and Shetland Sheepdogs are at particularly high risk.

[womanofthehills]

33. Glyphosate is also a sugarcane ripener used right before harvest in Louisiana, Texas, etc.

I guess it's only organic sugar for me from now on. I knew Roundup was used for drying wheat, oats and legumes but sugar too......... SO RIGHT BEFORE HARVEST, TONS OF ROUNDUP GETS SPRAYED ON SUGARCANE - Some people think this could also be connected to the red tide algae blooms in Florida.

Chemical ripening of sugarcane is an important component to profitable sugar production in the United States as well as other sugarcane industries throughout the world. Harvesting of sugarcane often begins before the sugarcane reaches the desirable maturity level. This is especially true in the Louisiana sugarcane industry where the window for harvesting is limited because of the risk of freezing temperatures encountered in a temperate climate. Research on the application of chemicals, mostly of herbicide origin, to enhance sucrose accumulation (ripening) or limit flowering to conserve stored sucrose has been conducted for more than 60 yr. The only sugarcane ripener currently registered for use in the United States is glyphosate applied before harvest.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1614/WS-D-09-00001.1

[lunasun]

35. Thanks I did not know that. I knew about beet sugar and of course high fructose corn syrup

Thought cane sugar was the best route ugh good thing I don't use much sugar but looks like another product that should be organic (for me )
So in these items non GMO indentification will not help

Foods sprayed with glyphosate can still be Non-GMO Project verified. That verification exists for GM contamination only and does not account for pesticide/herbicide use.
The only way to know that your food was not sprayed with glyphosate is to buy organic and/or know your farmer. I’m going with “know your farmer” as much as possible. The USDA’s organic label has lost some of its cred. If it ever really had any.

[gratuitous]

14. Monsanto absolutely knew its product was hazardous to human health

Our system being the way it is, corporations can be held accountable for the disease, misery, and death they inflict on citizens only in a civil court. Nobody will go to jail for Dewayne Johnson's murder, Monsanto might get nicked for a few dollars 7 or 10 years from now (while getting a tax credit each year for the money it holds in reserve to pay any judgment), and there will actually be people defending Monsanto's murderous practices in the court of public opinion.

[womanofthehills]

18. EPA needs to be investigated says Rep Ted Lieu

Ted Lieu
?Verified account @tedlieu
2h2 hours ago

In light of the $289 million jury verdict finding Monsanto liable for its cancer causing weed killer #Roundup, here again is my statement from last year.
-People should stop using Roundup
-@TheJusticeDept should investigate if @EPA engaged in coverup

“New questions about the safety of Monsanto weed killer Roundup are deeply troubling. I worked on the glyphosate issue last term and I believe consumers should immediately stop using Roundup, whose core ingredient glyphosate has been labeled a likely carcinogen and has been linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. We need to find out if Monsanto or the Environmental Protection Agency misled the public.”

“Reports suggest that a senior official at the EPA worked to suppress a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services review of glyphosate, and may have leaked information to Monsanto. I believe that a Department of Justice investigation is warranted to look into any potential misconduct by employees of the EPA. I also believe a congressional hearing is immediately warranted.”

https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-lieu-statement-new-glyphosate-safety-concerns

[gyroscope]

22. It's about time

Monsanto said DDT and agent orange were harmless to humans. which proves you can't believe anything they say.

this company has been poisoning the world's population while laying waste to the environment for nearly a century.

I hope Monsanto are bankrupted by the lawsuits and put out of business once and for all.

[PaulX2]

27. I had 2 gallons of glyphosate in the garage

Set them out on the street. I use natural non toxic weed killer now.

[PaulX2]

28. Roundup Does To Humans

What it does to weeds.

[PatSeg]

30. What a good day!

AND did you notice the absence of some of the usual suspects??? That is a great sign!

[womanofthehills]

34. I did notice that!

So far, so good!!

[PatSeg]

39. I like to take it as a sign

that they are losing and they know it!

[sarah FAILIN]

32. I completed a Master Gardener course 15ish years ago

I'll never forget talking about round up. The county agent teaching about it said it was so safe you could take a bath in it.