Chemical corporation must pay $2 billion in compensation to cancer-stricken couple

On May 13, a California court ruled on the lawsuit between a husband and wife.Alva and Alberta Pilliod against Bayer AG, owner of chemical company Monsanto, which produces the weed killer Roundup. The chemical giant must pay more than $2 billion in compensation to the company.Pilliod over its suspected cancer-causing product. This is the largest compensation Bayer AG has had to pay since acquiring Monsanto for $63 billion last year.

Alva and Alberta Pilliod allege that their frequent use of the glyphosate-containing herbicide Roundup from 1975 to 2011 caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma. They were diagnosed with the cancer in 2011 and 2015, respectively.

In 2017, the Pilliods filed a lawsuit against Monsanto. Both husband and wife are now in remission, but the risk of the disease recurring and shortening their lives is very high.

Brent Wisner, the Pilliods' attorney, insisted that Bayer must be held accountable for its product. "Monsanto has consistently denied that its weed killer causes cancer, and the Pilliods are victims of that deception," he said.

In a statement on May 13, Bayer said the company was disappointed with the court’s decision and would appeal. The company argued that both Alva and Alberta Pilliod, both over 70 years old, had long-standing medical conditions that significantly increased their risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Bayer also cited the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) research that found that the use of glyphosate did not pose a public health risk.

Bayer currently faces more than 13,400 lawsuits in the US over the herbicide Roundup. Plaintiffs claim that Monsanto knew about the herbicide’s cancer risks for decades but failed to warn consumers and instead pressured scientists and governments to give it favorable reviews. Bayer denies these allegations.

In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed glyphosate as a possible human carcinogen. However, a 2017 investigation byReutersshows that the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the WHO has revised, removing evidence that glyphosate causes cancer. In addition to the EPA, the European Chemicals Agency and several other regulatory agencies have determined that glyphosate is not likely to cause cancer in humans.