Officials of Monsanto settled for an undisclosed amount with a plaintiff in Florida suing them for their weed killer spray Roundup, that he claimed to have caused his Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer.
“The terms of the settlement are confidential and therefore I am limited in what I can say,” said plaintiff attorney Juan P. Bauta of the Ferraro law firm, on behalf of his client Richard Wyzik.
“The plaintiff had a very difficult time battling his Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and is happy to resolve the case so he can continue to focus on his treatment."
The lawsuit filed in the 17th Judicial Circuit of Florida (Fort Lauderdale) presided over by Judge Patti Henning was due to begin Oct. 31 and was to be streamed live courtesy of Courtroom View Network.
It is the latest in a number of lawsuits in which individual plaintiffs accuse the company and its spray of causing their cancers. Another suit filed in the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri is set to begin Nov. 1 in St. Louis.
In September, a 10-member jury in St. Louis in the 21st Judicial Circuit decided that Monsanto’s product did not cause the cancer claimed by three plaintiffs. Their attorneys had asked for $10 million for each of the three in damages including medical bills, pain, suffering and mental anguish. Instead the jury decided in favor of the argument made by defense attorneys, that the cancers were likely caused by unlucky mutated cell replications due to normal biological or environmental factors.
During that trial attorneys for both sides conceded there was no way to be 100% certain of the exact cause of the cancers.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in past trials have contended that the ability of Roundup to penetrate the skin of a weed to kill it can also penetrate human skin on exposure and get into the bloodstream. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a cancer of the white blood cells.
Roundup was first put on the market in 1974.
Attorneys defending Monsanto have relied on studies including an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finding that Roundup produced no risk when used properly. In addition they cited an Agricultural Health Study, a continuing study of genetics, lifestyle and farming industry factors. A 2018 addendum to the study, the Andreotti Report, decided there was no link between glyphosate. the chemical in Roundup. and the development of NHL.
A central pillar of the plaintiff lawyers’ case has been a 2015 finding by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that glyphosate was a “probable” cause of cancer in humans. In addition in July of 2017, glyphosate was added to a list of hazardous materials by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).
Defense attorneys sought to discredit IARC portraying it as over-zealous, declaring numerous substances or situations as probably hazardous including exposure to baloney meat and working late-night hours. They said the agency only spent a few days at a session held in Europe looking at the chemical glyphosate.
According to a report by the TorHoerman Law firm, Monsanto has settled over 100,000 lawsuits nationally worth more than $10 billion. Over 30,000 suits are still pending.
The St. Louis trial if it goes forward will be of interest because it will be heard just a few miles from Monsanto’s headquarters. The case and its outcome could influence the verdict of future trials.
Earlier this year, in a victory for plaintiffs, the U.S. Supreme Court turned back an attempt by Monsanto lawyers to toss out suits in state courts based on federal preemption laws.