Federal Jury Finds Monsanto’s Weed Killer Roundup Was A “Substantial Factor” In One Man’s Cancer

A federal jury has ruled unanimously that Roundup, a popular weed killer, was a “substantial factor” in causing a 70-year-old man’s cancer. Edwin Hardeman said that exposure to Roundup while using the product to control weeds and poison oak on his property for 26 years caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

A recently published meta-analysis considered several studies that looked at glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and showed that there was a “compelling link” between the chemical and development of the cancer. Rachel Shaffer, a study co-author and a Ph.D. student in environmental toxicology at the University of Washington, explained in a blog post that people who are highly exposed to the chemical have a roughly 2.8% chance of getting non-Hodgkin lymphoma … compared to a 2% chance for the general population. Those numbers may not seem large, but when explaining the relative risk … Shaffer said people who have been heavily exposed to glyphosate-based herbicides (like those who spray it on plants every day at work) have a 41% increased risk of developing the disease at some point in their lives, compared to people who were not highly exposed.