‘COMPLETELY SAFE’: MONSANTO OWNER BAYER HIT BY NEW WAVE OF LAWSUITS OVER ROUNDUP WEED KILLER

November 13, 2018 in News by RBN Staff

 

via: BLACKLISTED NEWS

 

SOURCE: RT

 
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer disclosed that lawsuits from 9,300 plaintiffs were pending at the end of October. The lawsuits allege that the company’s recently acquired weed-killing product causes cancer.

Plaintiffs claim that Roundup weed killers, which Bayer acquired in its takeover of US agrochemical firm Monsanto, made them ill and that the company knew or should have known of the risks but failed to warn adequately.

Bayer rejected all the accusations, claiming there are hundreds of scientific studies and regulatory authorities that show glyphosate, the compound contained in the weed killers, is safe to use.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, which is the most popular weed killer in the US.

“We continue to believe that we have meritorious defenses and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in all of these lawsuits,” said Bayer’s chief executive Werner Baumann.

He acknowledged, however, that “more lawsuits are to be expected.”There were 8,700 lawsuits against the company as of the end of August.

According to Baumann, “glyphosate is an indispensable chemical for modern agriculture that is safe to use, very effective and saves resources.” He explained: “When used appropriately, glyphosate is a completely safe and good product,” repeating “completely safe.”

The number of lawsuits against Monsanto has been surging lately and, according to expert estimates, could cost its new owner Bayer billions of dollars in damages in the coming years.

The surge in lawsuits followed the $289-million California court verdict when Monsanto was ordered to pay damages to a man who alleged its glyphosate-based weed killers, including Roundup, caused his cancer.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic. It had labeled glyphosate a carcinogen in 1985, but reversed the position in 1991. The World Health Organization’s cancer research agency classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015. California has listed glyphosate in its Proposition 65 registry of chemicals known to cause cancer.

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A shocking amount of the popular herbicide glyphosate, marketed by Monsanto/Bayer as RoundUp, has been found in breakfast cereals marketed to children. Even more appalling is the revelation that some of the cereals contain more glyphosate than common vitamins.

A judge in California on Monday upheld a landmark verdict in a case brought by a terminal cancer patient who successfully argued his illness resulted from his exposure to Monsanto’s weedkiller RoundUp, but slashed the damages the agrochemical giant was originally required to pay from $289 million down to just $78 million and said she would order a retrial if former groundskeeper Dewayne “Lee” Johnson rejects the payout.

On June 7, 2018 Bayer finally gained approval from the US Department of Justice to purchase Monsanto for 62.5 billion dollars. After an initial slight increase on the NASDAQ exchange from $ 29.96 per share on June 6, to $31.67 on June 16, the company’s value has been on a downward trend ever since. Today it’s stock has sank as low as $20.28 per share. Now investors are left wondering how much farther it will go, while Clean Food Advocatesaround the world celebrate. So how exactly did two of the biggest multinational companies merging result in such a dramatic nosedive?

The number of U.S. lawsuits brought against Bayer’s (BAYGn.DE) newly acquired Monsanto has jumped to about 8,000, as the German drugmaker braces for years of legal wrangling over alleged cancer risks of glyphosate-based weedkillers.

The number of U.S. lawsuits brought against Bayer’s (BAYGn.DE) newly acquired Monsanto has jumped to about 8,000, as the German drugmaker braces for years of legal wrangling over alleged cancer risks of glyphosate-based weedkillers. Bayer had previously disclosed 5,200 such lawsuits against Monsanto, which it acquired in a $63 billion deal completed in June. “The number of plaintiffs in both state and federal litigation is approximately 8,000 as of end-July.

The known carcinogen and infamous weed killing chemical glyphosate has just been found in breakfast foods marketed for children. A new study has discovered trace amounts of the most widely used herbicide in the country in oats, granolas, and snack bars.