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SAN FRANCISCO – A San Francisco federal court jury will decide whether a Roundup killer has caused the cancer of a California man in a lawsuit that starts Monday and which, according to plaintiffs' lawyers, could help determine the case. fate of hundreds of similar lawsuits.
Edwin Hardeman, 70, is the second largest petitioner to bring thousands of people before the court to say that the weed killer at food giant Monsanto is the cause of cancer.
According to Monsanto, studies have shown that the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, is safe.
In August, a San Francisco jury awarded $ 289 million to another man after determining that Roundup was causing his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A judge subsequently reduced the amount to $ 78 million and Monsanto appealed.
Hardeman's trial is before a different judge and may be more meaningful. US Judge Vince Chhabria, who oversees hundreds of Roundup trials, has ruled the case of Mr. Hardeman and two other "pending trials".
The outcome of opposing trials can help lawyers decide whether to proceed to court or settle it. A jury verdict in favor of Hardeman and the other witness-plaintiffs would give their lawyers a strong position in any negotiations for a settlement of disputes over the remaining cases in Chhabria, said David Levine, professor at University of California, Hastings College of the Law. follow-up of the Roundup trial.
Thousands of other Roundup lawsuits are pending in the state courts of the country.
Many government regulators have rejected the link between cancer and glyphosate. Monsanto vehemently denied such a connection, claiming that hundreds of studies have established that the chemical is safe.
Monsanto developed glyphosate in the 1970s and the weed killer is now sold in more than 160 countries and widely used in the United States.
The herbicide has been the subject of increased surveillance after the International Center for Research on Cancer, based in France, which is part of the World Health Organization, the ## 147 ######################################################################### Rated it as "probable carcinogen for humans" in 2015.
Prosecutions against Monsanto followed. Monsanto criticized the opinion of the international research agency. The United States Environmental Protection Agency stated that glyphosate was safe for people if it was used according to the label's instructions for use.
Hardeman began using Roundup products to treat poisoned oak, overgrowth, and weeds on his 56-acre property in Sonoma County in the 1980s, and continued using them until 2012, according to his lawyers. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2015.
In a setback for Hardeman, Chhabria made a decision last month dividing his trial into two phases. Hardeman's lawyers will first have to convince jurors that his use of Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma before he could argue for punitive damages.
The trial is expected to last about a month.
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