WIN!!! MONSANTO/BAYER secrets exposed - finally!

WIN!!! MONSANTO/BAYER secrets exposed - finally!

Postby Oscar » Sat Aug 11, 2018 4:26 pm

One man's suffering exposed Monsanto's secrets to the world

[ https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -the-world ]

Carey Gillam Sat 11 Aug 2018 09.05 BST Last modified on Sat 11 Aug 2018 09.07 BST

Company’s own records revealed damning truth of glyphosate-based herbicides’ link to cancer

(PHOTO: Dewayne Johnson reacts to the verdict at the superior court of California in San Francisco. Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images )

It was a verdict heard around the world. In a stunning blow to one of the world’s largest seed and chemical companies, jurors in San Francisco have told Monsanto it must pay $289m in damages to a man dying of cancer which he claims was caused by exposure to its herbicides.

Monsanto, which became a unit of Bayer AG in June, has spent decades convincing consumers, farmers, politicians and regulators to ignore mounting evidence linking its glyphosate-based herbicides to cancer and other health problems. The company has employed a range of tactics – some drawn from the same playbook used by the tobacco industry in defending the safety of cigarettes – to suppress and manipulate scientific literature, harass journalists and scientists who did not parrot the company’s propaganda, and arm-twist and collude with regulators. Indeed, one of Monsanto’s lead defense attorneys in the San Francisco case was George Lombardi, whose resumé boasts of his work defending big tobacco.

Now, in this one case, through the suffering of one man, Monsanto’s secretive strategies have been laid bare for the world to see. Monsanto was undone by the words of its own scientists, the damning truth illuminated through the company’s emails, internal strategy reports and other communications.

The jury’s verdict found not only that Monsanto’s Roundup and related glyphosate-based brands presented a substantial danger to people using them, but that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Monsanto’s officials acted with “malice or oppression” in failing to adequately warn of the risks.

Testimony and evidence presented at trial showed that the warning signs seen in scientific research dated back to the early 1980s and have only increased over the decades. But with each new study showing harm, Monsanto worked not to warn users or redesign its products, but to create its own science to show they were safe. The company often pushed its version of science into the public realm through ghostwritten work that was designed to appear independent and thus more credible. Evidence was also presented to jurors showing how closely the company had worked with Environmental Protection Agency officials to promote the safety message and suppress evidence of harm.

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Re: WIN!!! MONSANTO/BAYER secrets exposed - finally!

Postby Oscar » Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:54 am

Monsanto ordered to pay $289 million in damages

[ https://canadians.org/blog/monsanto-ord ... on-damages ]

August 13, 2018 - 4:16 pm

According to The Guardian, the giant agrochemical corporation Monsanto has been ordered to pay $289 million in damages because of its weedkiller, Roundup.

Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old former groundskeeper, won a huge decision in a landmark court case with the “jury determining that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused his cancer and that the corporation failed to warn him of the health hazards from exposure. The jury further found that Monsanto ‘acted with malice or oppression.’”

The trial took place in San Francisco. Johnson’s lawyers argued that Monsanto had “fought science” for years and targeted academics who spoke out about the possible health risks of the herbicide product. The Guardian noted that Johnson was the first person to take the agrochemical corporation to trial over allegations that the chemical sold under the brand Roundup causes cancer.

The Guardian notes, “In the extraordinary verdict, which Monsanto said it intends to appeal, the jury ruled that the company was responsible for ‘negligent failure’ and knew or should have known that its product was ‘dangerous.’”

During the lengthy trial, Johnson’s attorneys introduced internal emails from Monsanto executives that they said demonstrated how the corporation repeatedly ignored experts’ warnings, sought favourable scientific analyses and helped to “ghostwrite” research that encouraged continued usage. [ https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ne-johnson ]

Monsanto has long argued that Roundup is safe and not linked to cancer and presented studies during trial that countered the research and testimony. Roundup, a herbicide, is registered in 130 countries and approved for use on more than 100 crops. In 2015, the World Health Organization’s international agency for research on cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” which brought on a slew of legal and legislative challenges.


Blogs by The Council of Canadians
[ https://canadians.org/blogs/council-canadians ]
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