California jury says Monsanto should pay $289 million to dying man who said Roundup helped cause his cancer

On Aug. 10 a San Francisco jury found that the Roundup helped cause a man's terminal cancer and slapped manufacturer Monsanto with $39 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages. Dewayne Johnson applied the herbicide 20 to 30 times a year while working as a school groundskeeper and was accidentally doused in it twice. Two years after the first such accident, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Holly Yan reports for CNN. 

It's impossible to prove what causes someone's cancer, but under California law Johnson only had to prove Roundup was a significant factor, and that Monsanto failed to warn consumers about its cancer risk. The World Health Organization ruled in 2015 that there is limited evidence to suggest that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans. Monsanto said in a statement after the verdict that many studies suggest Roundup, or its main ingredient glyphosate, do not cause cancer. Roundup is the most-used herbicide in the world and has been on the market for more than 40 years, Yan reports.

Though more than 800 people have filed such lawsuits against Monsanto, Johnson's is the first to go to trial because California allows plaintiffs to get an expedited trial if they are near death. The verdict may have spurred a flurry of new lawsuits against Monsanto and other companies, Yan reports.

Less than a week after the San Francisco verdict, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man sued Monsanto, claiming that the Roundup he used on his property for 23 years caused his non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Nick Hytrek reports for the Sioux City Journal in Iowa. A class-action lawsuit was filed against General Mills in Florida a few days ago on the grounds that the company should have warned consumers about the presence of glyphosate in Cheerios, Elaine Watson reports for Food Navigator USA.