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At least two Australian law firms plan to sue the Roundup maker after the historic verdict of a US court, in which a couple had been awarded $ 2 billion. after a jury had decided that the weed killer had caused their cancer.
On Sunday morning, the Sydney Morning Herald announced that a number of local Sydney councils are reviewing their product use, while the Victorian state government has launched its own study on glyphosate – the # 39 active ingredient of Roundup.
Meanwhile, two Australian companies, LHD Laywers and Maurice Blackburn, are investigating a possible lawsuit against the manufacturer of the product, the German pharmaceutical company Bayer.
This follows the decision of a California jury ordering Monsanto – owned by Bayer – to pay more than US $ 2 billion to a cancer couple after using its weed killer, the third and most important verdict against the company during Roundup in the United States.
Jonathan Walsh, director at Maurice Blackburn, told Guardian Australia that the company has conducted "hundreds of investigations" since the end of 2018 with people exposed to glyphosate.
"They are people from all walks of life, mothers and fathers using the product every weekend in the garden, as well as larger users, such as those involved in vegetation management in particular, as well as members of the farming community where they use this product a lot all day. and day, "he said.
"We are therefore actively investigating a number of cases and we are gathering expert evidence to help support individual actions."
Walsh said that Maurice Blackburn had considered a clbad action but "for the moment, we are not pursuing this angle".
"That does not mean that we have excluded it, we still keep it active, but we are currently looking at individual cases," he said.
But another company, LHD, is distributing a clbad action investigation statement.
"Monsanto (now Bayer), the creator of Roundup, faces claims that the company failed to warn users that prolonged exposure to the herbicide had been linked to certain forms of cancer," he said. he declared.
"As a result, thousands of lawsuits have been filed by cancer victims against Monsanto in the United States, alleging that the weed killer is causing cancer. In two recent cases, juries have examined Roundup cancer evidence, acknowledged Monsanto's responsibility, and ordered the company to pay millions of dollars in damages to victims.
"LHD lawyers encourage people affected by the Monsanto Roundup to express their interest in a case badessment. You may have the right to require Monsanto compensation for physical pain, mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, physical disability, grief, anxiety and emotional distress. "
The safety of Roundup Herbicide, the most commonly used herbicide in the world, has been the subject of fierce debates at the international level.
Although Monsanto and Bayer insist that the product is safe, in 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans". man".
In April, the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry issued a 257-page report stating that it could not exclude a link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and suggesting additional research .
However, in an interim decision issued in May, the US Environmental Protection Agency found that the product did not cause cancer or other health problems if used as directed, and in Australia the Australian Pesticides Veterinary Medicines Authority states that the product is safe if used properly.
To date, no product-focused case in Australia has been reported, but in the United States, Bayer has lost three court cases against people with cancer in the past 12 months, while there are 13,000 other plaintiffs lining up to sue the company.
In May, a California jury ruled Monday that Monsanto was responsible for Alva and Alberta Pilliod's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The jury ordered the company to pay each of them a damage of one billion dollars and a total of more than 55 million dollars in compensatory damages.
The move followed two consecutive family-run trials that took Monsanto to replace Roundup, a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma study, a cancer that affects the immune system.
Dewayne Johnson, a former school warden suffering from terminal cancer, won a $ 289 million victory in a state court last year, and Edwin Hardeman , which sprayed Roundup on its properties, won $ 80 million in this year's first federal test.
In the aftermath of the Pillio case, Bayer issued a statement in which he said he was "disappointed" with the decision and was planning to appeal.
"We are very sympathetic to Mr. and Mrs. Pilliod, but the evidence presented in this case was clear: many histories of diseases known to be substantial risk factors for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), most NHL having no known cause, and is not reliable scientific evidence to conclude that glyphosate herbicides were the cause of their disease, as the jury was required to determine in this case, "Bayer told 'time.
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