A lawsuit alleges that both active and inactive ingredients in Monsanto’s consumer product Roundup causes lymphoma, and that the company markets the product despite knowledge that the ingredients may cause cancer.

Plaintiff Bertha M. argues that sustained exposure to Monsanto’s consumer weed killer, Roundup, caused her to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The Monsanto lawsuit alleges Roundup causes lymphoma and that ingredients in the product, including active ingredient glyphosate and polyethoxylated tallow amine, an inactive ingredient used to decrease the liquid’s surface tension, are what caused her to develop the cancer.

The Roundup lawsuit alleges that dozens of Monsanto Roundup products are cancer-causing. The Monsanto Lymphoma class action lawsuit states that Monsanto has used the active ingredient glyphosate as an herbicide since the 1970s for both use in farms and residential areas, despite longstanding knowledge that the products’ ingredients could be harmful.

Pesticide Dangers

The Roundup lymphoma lawsuit notes that glyphosate is registered as a pesticide with the Environmental Protection Agency, but that the EPA’s guidelines for registrations only require that a product “will not generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment,” not that the product does not pose a health threat to humans.

The claim goes on to state that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act requires a company that registers a pesticide to conduct testing on the pesticide to determine that it is “safe,” and that no government testing was or is being conducted.

The Roundup lymphoma lawsuit notes that evaluation for each pesticide is conducted at the time of its registration, and that as science has advanced over time, the information needed to register a pesticide has changed. As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of reviewing pesticides, including glyphosate, for “re-registration.”

The complaint adds that in early 2015, the EPA registered glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen,” in response to research conducted by the World Health Organization.

Roundup Sold as Safe

Monsanto markets Roundup as being safe and biodegradable, saying that Roundup is “safer than table salt,” and “practically non-toxic.” However, Bertha’s Roundup lawsuit claims the company faced serious challenges to this claim as early as 1996 in a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General’s office, and in a 2009 ruling from France’s highest court.

Bertha argues that as the company faced so many challenges to their assertion that the product was nontoxic and safe, they should have conducted more research into the issue, or known that Roundup causes lymphoma well before the EPA’s 2015 re-registration of glyphosate as a “possible carcinogen.” She argues that the company’s continuous marketing of Roundup as “safe” and “non-toxic” during that time constitutes false advertising and a willingness to endanger its consumers.

The Roundup Lymphoma Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 4:18-cv-00173-DDN, U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri.

If you or a loved one developed cancer after using Roundup as a farm worker or home gardener, you may have a legal claim. Legal migrant farm workers may also seek help. Learn more by filling out the form on this page for a FREE case evaluation.

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