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American courts rule against Monsanto is facing a legal battle should they with to appeal a damages payment of $289 million to a Californian school groundsman who contracted terminal cancer saying that the company’s Roundup had contributed to his disease The lawsuit brought by Dewayne Johnson was the first to go to trial in the States saying that Roundup causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, something which Monsanto denies. Jurors agreed that the product contributed to Johnson’s cancer and the company should have provided a label warning of the potential health hazard. Dewayne Johnson’s attorneys sought and won compensatory and punitive damages of $289 million. The jury found that Monsanto acted with malice and oppression because they knew what they were doing was wrong and doing it with reckless disregard for human life. Monsanto had denied a link
between glyphosate and cancer, citing hundreds of studies which had established that glyphosate is safe. Dewayne Johnson’s lawyers said that he sprayed large quantities
from a 50-gallon tank attached to a truck, and during gusty winds, the product would cover his face. It was reported that Johnson, during his four years as the groundsman, had sprayed 150 gallons of Roundup 20-30 times a year. He described two days where he ended up accidentally drenched in the herbicide. He had called Monsanto’s consumer hotline for advice, but said that the company had not called back. He was diagnosed with nonHodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014 at age 42. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that Roundup’s active ingredient is safe for people when used in accordance with label directions. In the UK the Amenity Forum has this statement on the use of glyphosate: Managing weeds in amenity situations is a vital task – it impacts on every UK citizen every day providing safe
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www.turfmatters.co.uk/forum 52 | Turf Matters | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2018