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Is Roundup Carcinogenic? Has Monsanto deliberately hidden the dangerousness of its glyphosate weed killer? These are the questions that an American court will have to examine from Monday, seized by an individual with a terminal cancer.
If hundreds or even thousands of procedures are under way in the United States against agrochemical giant, the complaint of Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old American who sprayed Roundup for more than two years, is the first on this product and its possible carcinogenic effects to lead to a trial.
The trial officially opened in mid-June with the appointment of a judge but the substantive debates are scheduled to begin only Monday, after a series of technical hearings. It is expected to last at least three weeks in San Francisco (West).
Sold for more than 40 years, Roundup, one of the world's most widely used herbicides, contains glyphosate, a highly controversial substance is the subject of conflicting scientific studies as to its carcinogenic nature.
Monsanto, who faces millions of dollars in damages alone, has always firmly denied any connection between cancer and glyphosate.
Dewayne Johnson "fights for life" after being diagnosed there two years of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, incurable, says one of his lawyers David Dickens, Miller's firm, specializing in the defense of individuals claiming defective products.
"This is not the fault luckily, "it's not due to a" genetic "problem," it's because of its continued exposure to Roundup and Ranger Pro "(Monsanto's similar product), which it sprayed between 2012 and 2014 on school grounds in the city of Benicia, California (West), says Dickens.
"And that could have been avoided," baderts the lawyer, accusing Monsanto, which has just been bought by German Bayer, knowingly hiding from the public the dangerousness of his products.
– Conflicting Decisions –
Mr. Johnson's lawyers have not yet set the amounts they intend to claim but evoke a "multi-million dollar judgment."
But the party will not easy for Dewayne Johnson, whose lawyers will have to prove a link between his illness, which causes him numerous skin lesions on the body, and the spreading of glyphosate.
The question is "Did Johnson's exposure to glyphosate cause cancer? … It did not cause cancer," says Sandra Edwards of Farrella, Braun Martel, one of Monsanto's attorneys.
During this trial, "you will see a lot of data and science," she notes, pointing out that there have been "studies that have followed for years and years of people who used these products ", without concluding that they caused cancer.
" Legally, it is extremely difficult to make a company responsible for specific cases of cancer or other diseases related to pesticides, " recognizes Linda Wells of the anti-pesticide NGO "Pesticide Action Network North America."
But "if Mr. Johnson wins this case, it will be a huge blow to the entire pesticide industry," says Wells
The file is all the more complex because there are many studies and decisions Contrary to glyphosate
Unlike the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California has placed glyphosate on the list of carcinogens. And in that State, every manufacturer who is aware of the carcinogenicity of a certain or suspected product must obligatorily include it on the packaging.
Glyphosate has also been clbadified as a "probable carcinogen" since 2015 by the International Center for Research on Cancer. cancer, a body of the WHO, unlike European agencies, Efsa (food safety) and Echa (chemicals).
Glyphosate is particularly controversial in Europe. Following the decision of the European Union in November to renew the license for the herbicide for five years, the French government pledged to stop using this substance for the main uses within three years
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