A lawsuit filed earlier this month has accused Bayer and its Monsanto subsidiary of causing a man’s cancer diagnosis after he used the weed killer Roundup for several years. Tens of thousands of similar product liability lawsuits also allege that exposure to glyphosate and other chemicals in Roundup have resulted in diagnoses of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Between 2008 and 2014, Mauno Petajasoja worked as a laborer at the North East Laborer’s Training Academy in Pomfret, Connecticut. On a weekly basis during that period, Petajasoja sprayed Roundup as an herbicide to maintain his employer’s property.
In February 2018, Petajasoja was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. On December 6, he filed a lawsuit alleging that Monsanto was directly responsible for causing his cancer diagnosis by using a potential carcinogen: glyphosate.
“Plaintiff maintains that Roundup and/or glyphosate is defective, dangerous to human health, unfit and unsuitable to be marketed and sold in commerce and lacked proper warnings and directions as to the dangers associated with its use,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff’s injuries, like those striking thousands of similarly situated victims across the country, were foreseeable and avoidable.”
The lawsuit added, “…Using Roundup created a high risk of unreasonable, dangerous side effects, including, but not limited to, the development of NHL, as well as other severe and personal injuries which are permanent and lasting in nature, physical pain and mental anguish, including diminished enjoyment of life, as well as need for lifelong medical treatment, monitoring, and/or medications.”
According to Bayer, Monsanto’s parent company, glyphosate “does not cause cancer or pose a public health risk when proper application procedures are followed.”
Petajasoja’s complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and will be consolidated along with 2,500 other similar cases pending in the federal court system.
More than 40,000 claims against Roundup and other Monsanto products have been filed in multiple state courts nationwide.
COMMENTS