If you have been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and have had exposure to Roundup, you may have a case against Monsanto. Please call Crandall Law Office at 208-343-1211 with any questions – we can help anywhere in the United States.

Monsanto Roundup Trial Tracker

https://usrtk.org/monsanto-roundup-trial-tracker-index/

This blog by Carey Gillam is updated regularly with news and tips about the lawsuits involving Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer products. See our Monsanto Papers pages for discovery documents. Please consider donating here to support our investigation.

April 4, 2019

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria is asking Monsanto and its new owner Bayer AG to begin mediation with lawyers for cancer victims who have sued Monsanto alleging its Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Chhabria’s move comes in the wake of an $80 million jury award to plaintiffs Edwin Hardeman last month in his courtroom. And last summer plaintiff Dewayne “Lee” Johnson was awarded $289 million by a jury in state court, though the judge in that case lowered the damages to $78 million.

Chhabria had warned that he might make such a move, but had indicated that he would likely wait until three trials had been concluded before pushing for a settlement. The third Roundup cancer trial has only just gotten underway, however.

As he pushes the parties to settle, Chabbria has vacated the May 20 trial date that was set for the next federal trial. That case, Stevick v. Monsanto was filed in April 2016 by Elaine Stevick, who has non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and her husband Christopher Stevick. The couple attended portions of the Hardeman trial.

Roughly 11,000 plaintiffs have sued Monsanto, which was purchased by Bayer last summer. More than 800 of those lawsuits are being overseen by Chhabria as federal multidistrict litigation. Several thousand more are pending in state courts around the country.

Observers have speculated that a global settlement might run between $3 billion and $5 billion.

Bayer has echoed Monsanto’s long-standing position that Roundup and the other glyphosate-based herbicides within the corporate portfolio are safe and do not cause cancer. But investors in Bayer have been hammering the company’s stock and criticizing Bayer CEO Werner Baumann for paying $63 billion for Monsanto only to become liable for the mass litigation liability. Some are urging a vote of no confidence in Baumann at the company’s annual meeting scheduled for April 26. The company’s shares have lost about 40 percent in value – roughly $39 billion – since last summer’s Johnson trial.

Meanwhile, there were some early sparks flying in the Roundup cancer trial going on now in Alameda County Superior Court. In that case, the married couple of Alva and Alberta Pilliod both have non-Hodgkin lymphoma they allege was caused from their regular use of Monsanto’s herbicides.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Mike Miller asked Judge Winifred Smith to issue a temporary restraining order against Monsanto for heavy advertising the company has been doing in defense of the safety of its herbicides, including a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal on March 25, the day the voir dire for jury selection in the Pilliod case began.

Monsanto countered by pointing out that plaintiffs’ attorneys have been running plenty of their own advertisements seeking new clients for the Roundup litigation. The motion would amount to an unconstitutional “gag order” and was “dripping with hypocrisy,” Monsanto lawyers argued.

In arguing against an injunction, Monsanto’s attorneys told the judge that The Miller Firm, which is representing the Pilliods and many other plaintiffs, ran an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle alleging a “doubling or tripling” of the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma from Roundup exposure a mere seven days before the Pilliod case began. Monsanto said there have been “2,187 anti-Roundup television and radio ads from December 1, 2018 to March 21, 2019” in the local San Francisco media market.

Judge Smith found Monsanto’s argument persuasive and denied the plaintiffs’ request for a limit on the advertising.

You have probably seen the ads on television about the lawsuits against Roundup’s manufacturer, Monsanto. You have probably also seen that these lawsuits are regarding people who have developed Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma from exposure to glyphosate, the ingredient found in Roundup.

But you have been exposed to glyphosate your entire life and haven’t gotten cancer, so what’s the deal? Is this just a bunch of hype?

What is lymphoma?

Lymphoma is the most common type of blood cancer. Specifically, lymphoma is a cancer that affects lymphocytes, which are a type of white blood cell. Lymphocytes travel through the blood and lymphatic system to defend the body against foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses. Lymphomas usually develop when a change, or mutation, occurs within a lymphocyte, causing the abnormal cell to replicate faster than, or live longer than, a normal lymphocyte. Like normal lymphocytes, cancerous lymphocytes can travel through the blood and lymphatic system and spread and grow in many parts of the body, including the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, and other organs.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is one of the most common cancers, representing 4 percent of all cancers in the United States. It is an acquired disease, meaning that you’re not born with it and you may not have other family members with the disease. Doctors don’t know exactly why NHL occurs, but believe something triggers the body’s response.

When it’s difficult to pinpoint a specific cause, it does make sense to look at environmental factors.

The challenge is being able to identify an individual factor. For example, it’s possible that someone could develop NHL from an infection not yet identified, or from a different toxin in the environment. Why would one person who is exposed to the toxin get sick, but others who are exposed might not?

There are no answers to these questions. Researchers and scientists have studied and tested lymphoma types of cancer, and some studies have shown that when glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, enters the body through the eyes, skin or nose the chemical can change the genetic material of cells, so that they multiply endlessly without dying. This type of exposure to pesticides and herbicides containing glyphosate chemical such as Roundup, may greatly increase the risk of lymphoma types of cancer.

How many types of lymphomas are there?

There are more than 90 types of NHL, some of which are more common than others. Any lymphoma that does not involve Reed-Sternberg cells is classified as non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Approximately 80,000 people are diagnosed with NHL each year in the United States.

There are three major groups of lymphomas:

B-cell lymphoma. About 90% of people in western countries with lymphoma have B-cell lymphoma.
T-cell lymphoma. About 10% of people with lymphoma have T-cell lymphoma. These lymphomas are more frequent in Asian countries.
NK-cell lymphoma. Less than 1% of people with lymphoma have NK-cell lymphoma.

NHL is also described by how quickly the cancer is growing, either “indolent” or “aggressive.” Indolent and aggressive NHL are equally common in adults.

Some subtypes of lymphoma cannot easily be classified as indolent or aggressive. For example, mantle cell lymphoma (see below) has both indolent and aggressive NHL features.

Diffuse large B-cell Lymphoma

Follicular lymphoma

Mantle cell lymphoma

Burkitt’s lymphoma

Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas

AIDS-related lymphoma

CNS lymphoma

Adult T-cell lymphoma

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma

Double hit lymphoma

Lymphoblastic lymphoma

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma

Nodal marginal zone lymphoma

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma

Primary central nervous system lymphoma

Skin lymphomas

Small lymphocytic leukemia

What types of lymphoma are being linked to glyphosate related cancers?

At first blush, the quick answer is B-Cell NHL. A 2014 Meta Analysis Roundup Cancer study showed, “B cell lymphoma positively associated with…the organophophorus herbicide glyphosate.” (Authors Leah Schinasi and Maria E. Leon, Section of Environment and Radiation, International Agency for Research).

Who is most at risk for exposure to glyphosate related cancers?

Farmers and agricultural workers;
Garden nursery employees;
Landscapers;
Golf course caregivers; and
Park and municipal landscapers

History of Monsanto

1901 – Monsanto is founded in St. Louis, Missouri;
1965 – Monsanto begins producing Agent Orange, a very toxic herbicide and defoliant used in the Vietnam War;
1974 – Monsanto brings to the market the glyphosate-based herbicide called Roundup;
1996 – Monsanto develops the first “Roundup Ready” crops; These are plant seeds which are genetically modified so they are not affected by the Roundup herbicide;
1996 – Monsanto is sued by the New York State attorney general for misleading advertising, saying that their glyphosate-based herbicides were “safer than table salt”;
2001 – The American Association for Cancer Research published a study researching if herbicides could cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. study researching if herbicides could cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A link was found between glyphosate-exposure and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma;
2003 – An American study was published, researching the link between pesticide and herbicide exposure and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in farms. Several of these substances were found to be linked with an increased chance of developing non- Hodgkin’s lymphoma, one of these being glyphosate;
2008 – A Swedish study was published, researching if exposure to pesticides would increase the chance of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in men and women aged between 18 and 74 years old. At the end of the study, the researchers claimed “In conclusion our study confirmed an association between exposure to phenoxyacetic acids and NHL and the association with glyphosate was considerably strengthened.”
2009 – Monsanto is confirmed to have been convicted of false advertising in a French court, after saying that Roundup left the soil clean; The European Union classified it Roundup as being “dangerous for the environment”;
2013 – Entropy, a Switzerland-based scientific journal, concludes that glyphosate enhances chemical residues and environmental toxins, saying that “Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.” They write that among other negative consequences that glyphosate can have on the body, one of them is cancer;
2014 – A study was published, researching the link between occupational exposure to pesticides and farmland workers. At the end of the study, they found out that “In a handful of papers, associations between pesticides and NHL subtypes were reported; B cell lymphoma was positively associated with phenoxy herbicides and the organophosphorus herbicide glyphosate.”
2015 – The International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organization) places glyphosate in Group 2A, meaning that they found it to be “probably carcinogenic to humans”; This year, people begin to file the first lawsuits against Monsanto, alleging that they have developed cancer because of the product;
2016 – The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal, publishes a study, concluding that glyphosate is associated with “a high risk of cutaneous melanoma”, (skin cancer);
2018 – The first Roundup lawsuit to go to trial results in the plaintiff winning $289 million (this verdict was reduced down to $78 million); Dwayne Johnson is a former groundskeeper who says that his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was caused by exposure to glyphosate; This year, Bayer, a German multinational company, acquires Monsanto for $66 billion; They intend to discontinue the Monsanto name, as an attempt to try and recover some trust from the public.
2018 – Bayer purchases Monsanto for $63 billion.
2019 – A second Roundup lawsuit received a unanimous verdict in favor of the plaintiff, Edwin Hardeman as to the first phase of his trial clearing the way for the jurors to decide whether Bayer unit Monsanto is liable and must pay damages to Mr. Hardeman.
There are currently approximately 11,200 lawsuits pending against Monsanto for glyphosate related cancers.

What do I do if I have NHL and believe it may be caused by glyphosate?

The best thing to do is contact an attorney who has experience with Multi-District Litigation (MDL) cases. Crandall Law Office has represented plaintiffs in MDL litigations relating to Zoloft, transvaginal mesh, hernia mesh, Trasylol and Roundup.

We have an experienced staff ready to answer your questions.

Please call us at 208-343-1211. We can help anyone in the United States with their claim.

Crandall Law Office

U.S. Judge Wants Monsanto Bayer to Start Settlement Talks in Roundup Cancer Litigation