© Hollandse Hoogte / Flip Franssen
Monsanto, a subsidiary of the German giant Bayer, was ordered to pay $2.25 billion in damages in Philadelphia on Friday. The money is intended for a man who sued the company because the weed killer Roundup allegedly caused him cancer.
According to John McKivison, his non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, resulted from the use of Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate.
Bayer disputes the harmfulness of glyphosate. The group said it plans to appeal the decision.
In 2015, glyphosate was classified as “probably carcinogenic” by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stated that with regard to the impact of glyphosate on the health of people, animals and the environment, there are no insurmountable objections that would prevent renewal of the permit. EFSA did acknowledge that there is a lack of data.