As ill California man’s landmark case begins, attorney attacks Roundup
maker’s response to researchers’ findings
Monsanto <https://www.theguardian.com/business/monsanto> has long worked to
“bully scientists” and suppress evidence of the cancer risks of its popular
weedkiller, a lawyer argued on Monday in a landmark lawsuit against the
global chemical corporation.
“Monsanto has specifically gone out of its way to bully ... and to fight
independent researchers,” said the attorney Brent Wisner, who presented
internal Monsanto emails that he said showed how the agrochemical company
rejected critical research and expert warnings over the years while
pursuing and helping to write favorable analyses of their products. “They
fought science.”
In his opening remarks, the Monsanto lawyer George Lombardi alleged that
the body of research over the years was on the company’s side: “The
scientific evidence is overwhelming that glyphosate-based products do not
cause cancer and did not cause Mr Johnson’s cancer.”
Johnson worked as a groundskeeper for a the school district in Benicia,
just north of San Francisco
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/san-francisco>, and was responsible
for applying Roundup. Lawyers showed the jury photos of lesions and rashes
on Johnson’s skin after he was regularly exposed to the chemical and was
eventually diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in 2014, at age 42.
“The simple fact is he’s going to die. It’s just a matter of time,” Wisner
said in court, as Johnson lowered his head and his wife cried in the seat
next to him. “Between now and then, it’s just nothing but pain.”
Wisner further cited Monsanto emails from decades prior, in which the
company was working with a genotoxicity expert who reviewed a series of
1990s studies. He raised concerns about Roundup impacts on humans and
suggested further areas of research. After the expert’s analyses, Monsanto
representatives began considering finding a different expert and also
started working on a press statement saying the product carried no risk,
according to Johnson’s lawyer.
Wisner also read documents that he said showed how Monsanto strategized
plans to “ghostwrite” favorable research.
Lombardi, the Monsanto lawyer, argued that Johnson’s lawyers were
“cherrypicking” studies that did not provide a “full picture”, repeatedly
pointed to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) findings approving the use
of glyphosate, and argued that the plaintiffs were overstating the
significance of IARC’s conclusions. He also said Monsanto had been open
about its involvement in research, adding: “Testing has been done by
independent scientists, by university scientists, by government
scientists.”
Timothy Litzenburg, one of Johnson’s lawyers, called his client “incredibly
brave” in an interview with the Guardian prior to trial, adding: “Whatever
happens ... his sons will get to know that their dad was brave enough to go
up against Monsanto completely alone, and first, before he died.”
In addition to financial compensation, a verdict in Johnson’s favor “would
say that his life is worth something”, Litzenburg added.
Regardless of the outcome, the attorney said, “so much of what Monsanto has
worked to keep secret is coming out”.
[permaculture] Monsanto 'bullied scientists' and hid weedkiller cancer risk, lawyer tells court | Business | The Guardian,
Lawrence London, 07/10/2018