As reported on CNBC’s website on October 15, 2015, Jacobs & Crumplar along with the firms of LUNDY, LUNDY, SOILEAU & SOUTH, LLP and WEITZ & LUXENBERG, P.C. filed a lawsuit on October 14, 2015 on behalf of three plaintiffs who as farm workers were exposed to Roundup, a pesticide sold by Monsanto.
The lawsuit alleges that these plaintiffs are suffering from serious diseases such as and chronic lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The lawsuit claims that Defendant Monsanto Company, Inc. began marketing glyphosate in products in 1974 under the brand name Roundup®. Roundup® is a non-selective herbicide used to kill weeds that commonly compete with the growing of crops.
On March 20, 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (“IARC”), an agency of the World Health Organization (“WHO”), issued an evaluation of several herbicides, including glyphosate.
That evaluation was based, in part, on studies of exposures to glyphosate in several countries around the world, and it traces the health implications from exposure to glyphosate since 2001.On July 29, 2015, IARC issued the formal monograph relating to glyphosate.
In that monograph, the IARC Working Group provides a thorough review of the numerous studies and data relating to glyphosate exposure in humans. The IARC Working Group classified glyphosate as a Group 2A herbicide, which means that it is probably carcinogenic to humans.
The IARC Working Group concluded that the cancers most associated with glyphosate exposure are non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other haematopoietic cancers, including lymphocytic lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic leukemia, B-cell lymphoma, and multiple myeloma.
The lawsuit alleges that Monsanto knew or should have known of the hazards and dangers of Roundup® and specifically, the carcinogenic properties of the chemical glyphosate prior to the times that plaintiffs were exposed to its product and that it failed to warn them and other consumers of the dangers of exposure to its product.
The plaintiffs were exposed to Roundup at various times between the 1980s and the 2000s.