Several hundred Roundup cancer lawsuits allege that Monsanto’s popular weed killer causes cancer, and they say that scientific evidence supports their claims.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria is conducting a hearing to determine if valid scientific research exists to support such claims. He is presiding over more than 300 Roundup cancer lawsuits.

Judge Chhabria will not decide whether or not Roundup causes cancer, but he will listen to experts to determine if the judicial guidelines for scientific evidence are met.

According to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, Judge Chhabria will apply rules requiring that each expert’s “testimony is based on sufficient facts or data; the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and the expert has reliably applied the principles and methods to the facts of the case.”

Roundup Cancer Lawsuits Hinge on Expert Testimony

The plaintiffs in the Roundup cancer lawsuits wish to present epidemiologists and other researchers, who the plaintiffs say will testify in court that Roundup causes cancer.

In December 2017, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published a new study by researcher Laura Beane Freeman, who led an examination of 54,000 farmers. Her report allegedly said that Roundup’s active ingredient glyphosate did not appear to have any effect on cancer risk.

Beane Freeman said that glyphosate might be linked to an increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia, but the numbers were not deemed “statistically significant,” according to an article published in Newsweek.

Beane Freeman did indicate that further studies should be done to reach definitive conclusions, but that gauging the risks is challenging. The amount of glyphosate each Roundup customer is exposed to is not exactly known, which means determining what amounts to an increased risk is difficult to determine.

In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said glyphosate probably causes cancer. Glyphosate is named as a chemical that can cause cancer on a list kept by the California Environmental Protection Agency.

The Roundup cancer lawsuits emphasize that it is Roundup in its final mixed formulation and not just glyphosate by itself that allegedly has harmed the weed killer’s users.

A 2014 article on the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s National Institutes of Health (NCBI.NLM.NIH) website entitled Major Pesticides Are More Toxic to Human Cells Than Their Declared Active Principlesindicates Roundup as a mixture allegedly is more dangerous than glyphosate alone.

Pesticide formulations include ingredients that the manufacturers declare “inert,” which means they won’t affect the human body one way or another.

According to the article, glyphosate is Roundup’s declared active principle, the ingredient most apt to be tested by itself. Most inert ingredients in pesticides reportedly are kept confidential, akin to a restaurant’s “secret recipe.”

Researchers led by Robin Mesnage tested Roundup in its mixed form that included glyphosate and all the inert ingredients, not just the active principle glyphosate.

According to the NLMNIH article, “Despite its relatively benign reputation, Roundup was among the most toxic herbicides and insecticides tested. Most importantly, 8 formulations out of 9 were up to one thousand times more toxic than their active principles.”

Mesnage’s research contends that Roundup’s inert ingredients are cell penetrants, which enable the glyphosate to enter the cells, which allegedly is one explanation as to why tests on glyphosate alone do not make it appear to cause cancer.

Judge Chhabria soon will decide what type of research satisfies the court’s definition of scientific research.

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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