As reported by the ABC on Saturday 11th August, the Cancer Council through its chief executive Professor Aranda, has responded weakly to the successful lawsuit in California which found that Monsanto’s Roundup was responsible for the Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma of school groundsman Dewayne Johnson. Johnson was awarded $389million in damages. She advised “anyone using them [the product] regularly to take precautions, such as masks and protective clothing… The work health and safety aspects of these kinds of exposures aren’t quite as tight as we’d like them to be”.
Dr Ian Musgrave, a pharmacologist at Adelaide University, who has defended glyphosate for some years (eg here and here) continued to do so: “those concerned about the cancer link were ‘somewhat exaggerating the evidence’ “.
More realistically, “Public liability lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, Dimi Ioannou, said the findings of the US case would make glyphosate ‘a long-standing issue’. Ms Ioannou said if the effects of glyphosate ever matched something like asbestos, it could lead to thousands of compensation claims in future.”
You can read the full ABC report here.
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