Jury awards $332 million to California man claiming Roundup caused his cancer

November 3, 2023

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

A San Diego County jury awarded $332 million to a Carlsbad man who claims long-term use of the weed killer Roundup caused him to develop a rare form of cancer. [NBC San Diego]

Roundup is a glyphosate-based herbicide that was originally produced by Monsanto. Bayer now owns Monsanto.

In Nov. 2021, Mike Dennis, 57, sued Bayer, alleging his rare cancer diagnosis was connected to decades of use of Roundup. 

Dennis was diagnosed in 2020 with mycosis fungoides, a rare form of T-cell lymphoma. The cancer has been in remission for nearly three years, but doctors have told Dennis it will return, as there is no cure for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

The Carlsbad man spent three years prior to his diagnosis dealing with rashes on his hands and feet. Dennis would not respond to the dermatological treatments he received during that period. 

Dennis had been using Roundup products for three decades.

Adam Peavy, one of Dennis’s attorneys, said glyphosate causes DNA damage once it is absorbed through a person’s skin, leading to the individual developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

Following the jury’s decision, Bayer issued a statement saying it disagrees with the verdict and that the company is confident the ruing can be overturned on appeal.

“We respectfully disagree with the jury’s adverse verdict, though it found in favor of the company on two of the four claims, and believe that we have strong arguments on appeal to get this unfounded verdict overturned and the unconstitutionally excessive damage award eliminated or reduced, given that there were significant and reversible legal and evidentiary errors made during this trial,” Bayer said in the statement. “We have a winning record in the Roundup litigation – having won nine of the last twelve cases at trial – and have resolved the majority of claims filed in this litigation,”