Australian law firms consider more lawsuits / Nufarm says it may face herbicide lawsuits
1. First cancer lawsuit over weedkiller Roundup filed in Australia
2. Roundup cancer link: Australian firms consider lawsuits over exposure to weedkiller
3. Nufarm says it may face herbicide lawsuits
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1. First cancer lawsuit over weedkiller Roundup filed in Australia
By Cameron Houston and Chris Vedelago
The Age, 3 June 2019
https://www.theage.com.au/national/first-cancer-lawsuit-over-weedkiller-roundup-filed-in-australia-20190603-p51u1a.html
A Melbourne gardener has launched legal action against a global pharmaceutical giant in the first Australian case to link cancer with popular weedkiller Roundup.
Michael Ogalirolo, 54, was diagnosed in 2011 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, after more than 18 years of exposure to glyphosate, the active component in Roundup.
Agribusiness Monsanto, which was purchased last year by German-based Bayer, has been accused in a Supreme Court writ of ignoring the carcinogenic impact of its top-selling herbicide.
"The defendant knew or ought to have known that the use of Roundup products were dangerous for the plaintiff ... in particular causing DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells, cancer, kidney disease, infertility and nerve damage among other devastating illnesses.
"As such, Roundup products are dangerous to human health and unfit to be marketed and sold in commerce, particularly without proper warnings and directions," the writ by Carbone Lawyers claims.
Mr Ogalirolo was told by doctors in February 2018 that his cancer was in remission, but he says his life remains on hold.
"I don't know what's around the next corner. I live for my four children and my grandkids and it's the uncertainty that is the hardest part. The doctors have admitted they don't know what happens next," he told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Mr Ogalirolo operated a Jim's Mowing franchise for several years before running his own landscaping business until 2015, when he was forced to retire because of poor health.
He claims to have used Roundup about three times a week for 18 years.
Tony Carbone, managing partner of Carbone Lawyers, said anyone using Roundup on a regular basis could be affected.
"It is clear the manufacturer of Roundup knew the product was a risk to people's health and clearly failed to display safety warnings on their product. This case has the potential to be substantially bigger than previous asbestos litigation," Mr Carbone said.
The lawsuit filed on Monday in the Supreme Court coincides with a Victorian government review into the safety of glyphosate. Several councils across Melbourne and Sydney are also considering a ban on Roundup and other products that include the chemical.
"Based on recent developments in the United States, Victoria's Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning is reviewing the use of glyphosates, including Roundup, across its public land management function as a matter of precaution," a government spokesman said last week.
An Australian-based spokesman for Bayer said the company was not in possession of the writ and could not comment.
However, a recent statement on Monsanto's website denied glyphosate had harmful side-effects.
"Glyphosate has a 40-year history of safe and effective use. In evaluations spanning those four decades, the overwhelming conclusion of experts worldwide, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has been that glyphosate can be used safely," the statement says.
Mr Ogalirolo's civil claim follows a string of successful lawsuits against Monsanto in the US, where juries have been willing to accept that the weed killer is directly responsible for causing cancer.
The release of internal corporate communications during the US trials have also uncovered attempts by Monsanto to influence scientific papers and interfere with research that raised concerns about the safety of its products.
In a landmark decision last year, a California jury awarded US$289 million (A$415 million) to a former groundskeeper after finding that Roundup caused his cancer and Monsanto had failed to disclose the serious health risks associated with its use.
A separate lawsuit in US federal court saw US$80 million (A$115 million) awarded to a residential user of the herbicide in early 2019.
Last month, a California couple was awarded US$2 billion (A$2.8 billion) after a jury found their non-Hodgkin lymphoma was caused by decades of exposure to Roundup.
The first Australian lawsuit will have to persuade a judge that glyphosate is responsible for causing cancer and Monsanto should be held liable.
But despite the successive US court victories, Australian regulators have not accepted that such connections exist.
“The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority considered the evidence presented in the [groundskeeper] case and found no grounds to take regulatory action in Australia,” the regulator announced in October 2018, following publicity about the ground-breaking decision in the US.
“There is a lot of information out there, and discussion in the media does not always get the facts or the science right.”
The regulator had already considered and rejected a 2015 finding by the World Health Organisation that glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
The US Department of Health and Human Services recently found it could not conclusively prove or dismiss a link between exposure to the herbicide and cancer, but the US Environmental Protection Agency has ruled glyphosate is not carcinogenic will not cause illness when used according to labelled instructions.
At least two other Australian law firms are also investigating potential class actions against Bayer.
Maurice Blackburn has received hundreds of inquiries and has sought expert evidence, while LHD Lawyers has circulated a class action investigation statement in a bid to procure plaintiffs.
"Monsanto (now Bayer), the creator of Roundup, is facing claims the company failed to warn users that extended exposure to the weedkiller has been linked to certain forms of cancer," it states.
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2. Roundup cancer link: Australian firms consider lawsuits over exposure to weedkiller
Michael McGowan
The Guardian, 2 Jun 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/02/roundup-cancer-link-australian-firms-consider-lawsuits-over-exposure-to-weedkiller
* Sydney councils and Victorian state government reviewing use of glyphosate after US court awards couple US$2bn
At least two Australian law firms are considering filing lawsuits against the manufacturer of Roundup after a landmark US court verdict in which a couple were awarded US$2bn after a jury agreed the weedkiller caused their cancer.
On Sunday the Sydney Morning Herald reported that a number of local councils in Sydney were reviewing their use of the product, while the Victorian state government has launched its own review of glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup.
At the same time, two Australian firms, LHD Laywers and Maurice Blackburn, are investigating a potential lawsuit against the product’s manufacturer, the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer.
It follows a decision by a jury in California ordering Monsanto – owned by Bayer – to pay more than $US2bn to a couple who got cancer after using its weedkiller, the third and largest verdict against the company over Roundup in the US.
Jonathan Walsh, principal at Maurice Blackburn, told Guardian Australia the firm had fielded “hundreds of inquiries” since late 2018 from people exposed to glyphosate.
“It’s people from all walks of life, mums and dads using the product every weekend doing the garden, to more heavy users like those involved in vegetation management in particular and also people from the farming community where they use a lot of this product day in and day out,” he said.
“So we’re actively investigating a number of cases and we’re in the stage of getting expert evidence to help support individual actions.”
Walsh said Maurice Blackburn had considered a class action but “at this stage we’re not pursuing that angle”.
“That’s not to say we’ve ruled it out, we’re still keeping it active, but we’re looking at individual cases presently,” he said.
But another firm, LHD, is currently circulating a class action investigation statement.
“Monsanto (now Bayer), the creator of Roundup, is facing claims the company failed to warn users that extended exposure to the weedkiller has been linked to certain forms of cancer,” it states.
“As a result, thousands of lawsuits have been filed by cancer victims against Monsanto in the US, alleging that the weedkiller causes cancer. Juries in two recent cases have reviewed the Roundup cancer evidence, found Monsanto liable and ordered the company to pay millions of dollars in damages to victims.
“LHD Lawyers are encouraging those affected by Monsanto’s Roundup to register their interest for a case evaluation. You may have a right to demand compensation from Monsanto for physical pain, mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, physical impairment, grief, anxiety, and emotional distress.”
The safety of Roundup, the most commonly used herbicide in the world, has been the subject of fierce debate internationally.
While Monsanto and Bayer insist the product is safe, in 2015 the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer ruled glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
In April the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry published a 257-page report saying it could not rule out a link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and suggesting more research was needed.
However, in an interim decision in May, the US Environmental Protection Agency found the product does not cause cancer or other health problems if it is used according to instruction labels, and in Australia the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority says the product is safe if used correctly.
To date there have been no cases centred on the product run in Australia, but in the US Bayer has lost three court battles against people suffering cancer in the last 12 months while there are reportedly another 13,000 plaintiffs lining up to sue the company.
In May, a jury in California ruled on Monday that Monsanto was liable for the non-Hodgkin lymphoma of Alva and Alberta Pilliod. The jury ordered the company to pay $1bn in damages to each of them, and more than $55m total in compensatory damages.
That decision followed two consecutive trial wins for families taking on Monsanto over Roundup, which research has linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that affects the immune system.
Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper with terminal cancer, won a $289m victory in state court last year, and Edwin Hardeman, who sprayed Roundup on his properties, was awarded $80m in the first federal trial this year.
Following the Pillio case, Bayer released a statement saying it was “disappointed” with the decision and planned to appeal.
“We have great sympathy for Mr and Mrs Pilliod, but the evidence in this case was clear that both have long histories of illnesses known to be substantial risk factors for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), most NHL has no known cause, and there is not reliable scientific evidence to conclude that glyphosate-based herbicides were the ‘but for’ cause of their illnesses as the jury was required to find in this case,” Bayer said at the time.
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3. Nufarm says it may face herbicide lawsuits
By Australian Associated Press
Daily Mail, 3 June 2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-7097985/Nufarm-says-face-herbicide-lawsuits.html
Agricultural company Nufarm has warned investors it could face litigation over its sales of glyphosate, even though it says the widely used herbicide is safe to use as directed.
US agriculture giant Monsanto has in the last 10 months lost three multimillion-dollar jury verdicts to litigants who blame its Roundup herbicide gave them cancer.
It faces thousands of other lawsuits.
Since Monsanto's patent to Roundup expired in 2000, Nufarm has purchased glyphosate in bulk from other wholesalers to create its own weedkiller.
Nufarm noted in a disclosure to the ASX on Monday that "independent, science-based regulatory agencies around the world have comprehensively evaluated glyphosate-based herbicides and found them safe to use in accordance with label directions".
Nufarm said that it that "the science" showing glyphosate doesn't cause cancer will ultimately prevail, but says it is considering the risk of litigation "very carefully".
At 1518 AEST, shares in Nufarm were 4.6 per cent lower at $3.76.