German chemical giant Bayer’s $63 billion purchase of US firm Monsanto is the largest ever by a German of a non-German company. But Bayer also takes on Monsanto’s problems, which the trial of Lee Johnson highlights.
US citizen Lee Johnson claims exposure to glyphosate, the key ingredient in the Roundup weed killer made by Monsanto, caused his deadly cancer. As groundskeeper for the school district in Benicia, California, Johnson handled hundreds of gallons of Roundup and was diagnosed with cancer in 2014. He was given six months to live.
His case, which started on Monday in San Francisco state court against Roundup’s maker, Monsanto, is pivotal to the fate of German chemicals giant, Bayer, which paid $63 billion (€56 billion) for the US firm in May.
Read more: Opinion: The Bayer-Monsanto merger
The 46-year-old is the first to go to trial against the St. Louis, Missouri-based company, with thousands of others in the US also blaming the company’s herbicide for their illnesses and likely to litigate if the ruling goes against the company.
Glyphosate was approved for use in Monsanto’s weed killer in 1974 and later became the world’s most popular herbicide. The question of whether it causes cancer has long been debated by environmentalists, regulators, researchers and lawyers.
Not binding, but could start a landslide
The outcome of the case is not binding for any of the thousands of plaintiffs in St. Louis making similar claims, or for the 300 cases before a federal judge in San Francisco or the dozens of lawsuits in Oakland, California.
But, according to Johnson’s lawyers, who are also involved in lawsuits in all the above jurisdictions, the trial is an indicator of how others might go. The trial is the “canary in the coal mine,” according to Tim Litzenburg, a lawyer for Johnson. “The world is watching, and it’s unofficially a bellwether case.”
A pretrial ruling gives Johnson’s lawyers the right to use internal Monsanto correspondence to show the company had been aware of the risk its herbicides are carcinogenic.
“We need to show that Monsanto knew that their remedy was carcinogenic and they tried to manipulate science,” Michael Baum of the firm Tree Hedlung Aristei Goldman said. He refers to a ruling by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its cancer research agency, which classifies glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic.”
Read more: Monsanto pushes against California listing of herbicide as cancer cause
Documents in the trial will also be produced aiming to prove Monsanto put pressure on government employees at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
For more read the full of article at The Dw
