Bayer’s Monsanto was ordered to pay more than $1.5 billion Friday over claims its patented weed-killer, Roundup, was linked to users’ cancer, Bloomberg reported.
James Draeger, Valerie Gunther and Dan Anderson were each awarded a total of $61.1 million in actual damages and $500 million each in punitive damages by jurors in state court in Jefferson City, Missouri.
The three people alleged that their non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas — a type of cancer that begins in your lymphatic system, part of the body’s immune system — were caused by years of using Roundup while gardening.
True story: When I was in grade school another kid bragged that a 2-4-D salesman told a bunch of loggers that it was so safe that you could drink it. Afterwards one of the loggers put a $50 bill next to a small cup of the herbicide and dared anyone to drink it for the money. The kids dad drank it and snatched the money. He died of cancer within 10 years.