An Australian farmer has claimed that he has developed a type of cancer that was caused by the weedkiller of Bayer AG’s agricultural chemicals unit Monsanto, following which the farmer has filed a legal case against the company, said the lawyer for the man on Friday.
According to Tony Carbone, of Melbourne-based Carbone lawyers, the lawyer of New South Wales farmer Ross Wild, last year the farmer was first diagnosed with a type of cancer called non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and he had been using the weedkiller Roundup since 1976 for farming in his fields near the border of NSW and Victoria.
According to the claims made by Wild, the reason for the development of cancer in his body was the fact that he was exposed for a long time to Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, Carbone told the media, and added that more than 100 people who had developed the same cancer had contacted him to inquire about their condition.
While being aware that a statement claim about glyphosate had been made in the media, Bayer was yet to receive any court documents, said a Bayer spokesman. “We have great sympathy for any individual with cancer, but the extensive body of science on glyphosate-based herbicides over four decades supports the conclusion that Roundup does not cause Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL),” he said in a statement.
The spokesman said that extensive studies by scientists and regulators on glyphosate have been conducted and none of the studies had hinted on any carcinogenic nature of the chemical. “We firmly stand behind the safety of glyphosate-based products, and as a company devoted to life sciences, assure Australians that their health and the environment are our top priority.”
The use of glyphosate as a weedkiller is extensive all across the world. Despite being the first glyphosate-based weedkiller was Monsanto’s Roundup, it is no longer under patent protection and there are many other versions of the weedkiller in the world. No sale figures of the weedkiller is provided by Bayer.
About 18,400 plaintiffs in the US had so far filed legal cases against the company as of July 11, claiming that they developed cancer because of glyphosate in the weedkiller of the company, Bayer had said in a press statement. Bayer said this month that there has been in a delay in a trial over the weedkiller that was scheduled to begin on October 15 in Missouri.
There are many other similar lawsuits that have been delayed for the time being because of attempts of negotiations for a settlement with the plaintiffs was being made by mediator Ken Feinberg. This measure has been initiated by the company after a ruling by a California jury in August last year which argued that it was the duty Monsanto to warn users of the alleged cancer risks form the usage of the weedkiller.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
According to Tony Carbone, of Melbourne-based Carbone lawyers, the lawyer of New South Wales farmer Ross Wild, last year the farmer was first diagnosed with a type of cancer called non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and he had been using the weedkiller Roundup since 1976 for farming in his fields near the border of NSW and Victoria.
According to the claims made by Wild, the reason for the development of cancer in his body was the fact that he was exposed for a long time to Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, Carbone told the media, and added that more than 100 people who had developed the same cancer had contacted him to inquire about their condition.
While being aware that a statement claim about glyphosate had been made in the media, Bayer was yet to receive any court documents, said a Bayer spokesman. “We have great sympathy for any individual with cancer, but the extensive body of science on glyphosate-based herbicides over four decades supports the conclusion that Roundup does not cause Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL),” he said in a statement.
The spokesman said that extensive studies by scientists and regulators on glyphosate have been conducted and none of the studies had hinted on any carcinogenic nature of the chemical. “We firmly stand behind the safety of glyphosate-based products, and as a company devoted to life sciences, assure Australians that their health and the environment are our top priority.”
The use of glyphosate as a weedkiller is extensive all across the world. Despite being the first glyphosate-based weedkiller was Monsanto’s Roundup, it is no longer under patent protection and there are many other versions of the weedkiller in the world. No sale figures of the weedkiller is provided by Bayer.
About 18,400 plaintiffs in the US had so far filed legal cases against the company as of July 11, claiming that they developed cancer because of glyphosate in the weedkiller of the company, Bayer had said in a press statement. Bayer said this month that there has been in a delay in a trial over the weedkiller that was scheduled to begin on October 15 in Missouri.
There are many other similar lawsuits that have been delayed for the time being because of attempts of negotiations for a settlement with the plaintiffs was being made by mediator Ken Feinberg. This measure has been initiated by the company after a ruling by a California jury in August last year which argued that it was the duty Monsanto to warn users of the alleged cancer risks form the usage of the weedkiller.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
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