During recent hearings for the Roundup MDL, experts testified as to the carcinogenic properties of glyphosate, the main ingredient found in Monsanto’s weedkiller, Roundup.

Roundup, manufactured by agricultural giant, Monsanto, is one of the world’s most widely used weed killers. It has, however, been linked with certain cancers. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a cancer that has been commonly associated with Roundup. Patients who were diagnosed with cancer have filed lawsuits now in the Roundup MDL.

Other cancers and deadly conditions have also been associated with Roundup and glyphosate use including multiple myeloma, leukemia, B-cell lymphoma, bone cancer, renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer), skin tumors, pancreatic islet cell tumors, chromosomal damage and DNA damage.

In the recent hearings for the Roundup MDL (or multidistrict litigation) taking place in San Francisco, a series of expert witnesses gave testimony regarding glyphosate, the central herbicidal ingredient in Roundup and it directly relates to the development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

According to reports, Monsanto requested that all expert testimony be scrapped in this Roundup MDL.  Presiding U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria and California SuperiorCourt Judge Ioana Petrou heard testimony from several witnesses corroborating consumers’ allegations that Roundup causes cancer.

In general, the expert witnesses agreed that long-term exposure to glyphosate was connected to a higher incidence of the development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

One particular expert in the Roundup MDL hearings, a hematopathologist named Dennis Weisenburger, gave testimony about the occurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in both epidemiological studies and animal studies. His testimony revealed that he was convinced about the connection between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I tried to synthesize all this information and weigh it as a whole. There’s good data to conclude exposure to glyphosate increases the risk for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. … There’s a body of evidence that’s pretty compelling that glyphosate and its formulations are genotoxic in living cells,” he said during his testimony.

Other experts weighed in on the alleged connection between non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Roundup including an occupational and environmental epidemiologist, Dr. Beate Ritz, brought scientific and technical evidence from both a Canadian study and a Swedish study.

Both studies found similar things: that exposure to glyphosate over a long period of time, such as the exposure that a farmer might experience, can lead to almost double the incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

In this Roundup MDL, Monsanto disagreed with much of the expert testimony claiming that studies don’t take into account exposure to other pesticides and that even with long-term glyphosate exposure, very little of the chemical is absorbed by the body. Monsanto also claims that multiple studies over many decades do not show links between non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and glyphosate.

At the end of last year, Monsanto argued that the Roundup MDL should be dismissed because the expert testimony did not fit the requirements for admissibility for scientific evidence. Monsanto said that “the experts used results-driven methods to produce evidence linking the Roundup ingredient glyphosate to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”

The Roundup MDL is In re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 3:16-md-02741, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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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