There are close to 43,000 lawsuits that have been filed against the world’s most popular weed-killer, Roundup, produced by Monsanto, a company purchased last year by the German manufacturer Bayer for about $63 million.
The Environmental Protection Agency is taking Bayer’s side in the only federal jury verdict, a California case in which a man was awarded $25 million for the cancer he says was caused by the herbicide..
Last week the EPA sent the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals a letter suggesting the verdict be overturned because Edwin Hardemen’s case was based on California state law, not federal law. The EPA, a federal agency, had ruled that Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, was non-carcinogenic, so a state cannot require the manufacturer to include a warning label.
Bayer has agreed to postpone two other pending trials to allow time for mediation.