January 1, Bayer Announces $10B Settlement Over Cancer-Causing Chemicals in Roundup

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Bayer announced that it would pay more than $10 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits filed over its Roundup herbicide.

Roundup’s active ingredient is glyphosate, which many of the approximately 125,000 plaintiffs claimed had caused them to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

In 2015, glyphosate was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

“The decision to resolve the Roundup™ litigation enables us to focus fully on the critical supply of healthcare and food,” said Werner Baumann, Bayer’s Chief Executive Officer.

“It will also return the conversation about the safety and utility of glyphosate-based herbicides to the scientific and regulatory arena and to the full body of science.”

However, tens of thousands of lawsuits have been filed against Bayer over its herbicide, and recent actions by the U.S. Supreme Court indicate that the company isn’t done in the courtroom.

Supreme Court denies Bayer’s challenge to Roundup lawsuits

On June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a decision in which an appeals court awarded $25 million in damages to Edwin Hardeman, who claimed that he developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using Roundup for several years.

Then six days later on June 27, the Supreme Court declined to review a 2021 decision in which a California district court awarded $87 million to Alva and Alberta Pilliod, who argued that Roundup caused them to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“Bayer respectfully disagrees with the Supreme Court’s decision,” a company spokesperson said. “There are likely to be future cases, including Roundup cases, that present the U.S. Supreme Court with preemption questions like Pilliod and Hardeman and could also create a circuit split and potentially change the legal environment.”

Given that the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to review the first three decisions means that Bayer still faces tens of thousands of lawsuits that were not resolved by its substantial settlement.

If you used Roundup and developed cancer, you may be entitled to significant monetary damages. You can learn more and sign up for a Free Case Review here.

Sources: NPR | Medtruth | Reuters