March 28 (UPI) — A San Francisco jury awarded more than $80 million to a California man whose cancer they found was likely caused by herbicide Roundup.
The six-person federal jury said Monsanto must pay Edwin Hardeman, 70, $200,000 for economic losses, more than $5 million for pain and suffering, and $75 million in punitive damages.
The same jury found last week that Hardeman’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma was likely caused by decades of using Roundup.
There are 760 cases against Monsanto before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, who heard the Hardeman case, and another 10,000 pending nationwide. The San Francisco case could create settlement guidelines for those lawsuits.
“The verdict in this trial has no impact on future cases and trials, as each one has its own factual and legal circumstances,” German pharmaceutical and chemical giant Bayer, which acquired Monsanto last summer, said in a statement.
The company said studies have shown the active ingredients in Roundup are not carcinogenic.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s decision, but this verdict does not change the weight of over four decades of extensive science and the conclusions of regulators worldwide that support the safety of our glyphosate-based herbicides and that they are not carcinogenic.”
