US: Monsanto ordered to pay $289m to man whose cancer was caused by weedkiller

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A jury in San Francisco found the company that makes Roundup weedkiller liable for 46-year-old Dewayne Johnson’s cancer, awarding him $289 million in damages.

His victory sets a precedent for thousands of other people who claim exposure to the herbicide leads to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Mr Johnson’s case was the first to reach trial because his doctors said he is near death. Such plaintiffs are granted expedited trials in California.

Last year, CNN reported that more than 800 patients were suing the GMO giant and since then hundreds of plaintiffs have taken legal action the company.

A jury at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco awarded Mr Johnson $250m in punitive damages and $39m in compensatory damages after three days’ deliberation.

Monsanto issued a statement saying it plans to appeal and that it maintains its product does not cause cancer.

Monsanto vice president Scott Partridge said: “We will appeal this decision and continue to vigorously defend this product, which has a 40-year history of safe use and continues to be a vital, effective and safe tool for farmers and others.”

Mr Johnson used the weedkiller 20 to 30 times a day while working for a school district near San Francisco and had two accidents in which he was soaked with the substance.

In 2014 he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He is too crippled to speak on bad days and has lesions on 80 per cent of his body.