Roundup weed killer cancer lawsuits keep mounting as Pennsylvania man is awarded $78 million

A Pennsylvania man was awarded $78 million after filing a lawsuit saying he developed cancer from using the weed killer Roundup. 

William Melissen, 51, said he was diagnosed in 2020 with a blood cancer called Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and a type of leukemia, which he argued was because of his exposure to chemicals in the weed killer, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

It's the latest in a string of lawsuits against the company that's already reached nearly $11 billion in settlements so far, and thousands of more lawsuits are pending.

Melissen claims he used the product frequently for nearly 30 years between 1992 and 2020. He sued agricultural giant Monsanto, which makes Roundup, and its German parent company, Bayer, in 2021.

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A Philadelphia jury ruled on Thursday that the man's cancer was caused by Glyphosate, which is the key ingredient in Roundup. The jury awarded him $3 million dollars in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages.

Monsanto said in a statement that it disagrees with the jury's verdict and that evidence does not support the claim that Roundup causes cancer. The company also said that trial errors provided the company with strong grounds for appeal.

The alleged errors include that the case was not dismissed after three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled in August that Pennsylvania state law cannot require a more expansive pesticide warning label than the one approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

During the trial, Monsanto's attorney, Bart Williams, presented to the jury transcripts from testimony by Melissen and his treating physician showing that his cancer is in remission, and that he was treated with a five-day round of chemotherapy.

Melissen's lawsuit is one of thousands of cases nationally in which people who developed cancer accuse Monsanto of failing to include adequate warnings about its weed killer product.

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Monsanto has reached settlements in nearly 100,000 Roundup lawsuits in which it paid roughly $11 billion. Monsanto estimates that 54,000 active Roundup lawsuits still remain.

"This is one more jury that recognized the outrageous conduct of Monsanto for 50 years," Melissen's attorney Tom Kline told the Philadelphia Inquirer after Thursday's verdict.