Breakthrough in explosive lawsuit against Monsanto

Breakthrough in explosive lawsuit against Monsanto

May23  by Jon Rappoport  

Breakthrough in explosive lawsuit against Monsanto

By Jon Rappoport
A San Francisco lawsuit against Monsanto and its weedkiller, Roundup, is moving forward. And it’s just received a new green light from the judge in the case.
Monsanto’s lawyers are bracing for a deep level of attack, which they were hoping to avoid. The judge has ruled the jury can hear testimony on this issue: Monsanto suppressed evidence that Roundup causes cancer.
Reporter Carey Gillam has the story (The Guardian, 5/22): “At the age of 46, DeWayne Johnson is not ready to die. But with cancer spread through most of his body, doctors say he probably has just months to live. Now Johnson, a husband and father of three in California, hopes to survive long enough to make Monsanto take the blame for his fate.”
“On 18 June, Johnson will become the first person to take the global seed and chemical company to trial on allegations that it has spent decades hiding the cancer-causing dangers of its popular Roundup herbicide products – and his case has just received a major boost.”
“Last week Judge Curtis Karnow issued an order clearing the way for jurors to consider not just scientific evidence related to what caused Johnson’s cancer, but allegations that Monsanto suppressed evidence of the risks of its weed killing products. Karnow ruled that the trial will proceed and a jury would be allowed to consider possible punitive damages.”
“’The internal correspondence noted by Johnson could support a jury finding that Monsanto has long been aware of the risk that its glyphosate-based herbicides are carcinogenic … but has continuously sought to influence the scientific literature to prevent its internal concerns from reaching the public sphere and to bolster its defenses in products liability actions’, [Judge] Karnow wrote.” [Yes, the Judge in the case wrote that statement.]
“Johnson’s case, filed in San Francisco county superior court in California, is at the forefront of a legal fight against Monsanto. Some 4,000 plaintiffs have sued Monsanto alleging exposure to Roundup caused them, or their loved ones, to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Another case is scheduled for trial in October, in Monsanto’s home town of St Louis, Missouri.”
“How the Johnson lawsuit plays out could be a bellwether for how other plaintiffs proceed. If Johnson prevails, there could be many more years of costly litigation and hefty damage claims. If Monsanto successfully turns back the challenge, it could derail other cases and lift pressure on the firm.”
“According to the court record, Johnson had a job as a groundskeeper for the Benicia unified school district where he applied numerous treatments of Monsanto’s herbicides to school properties from 2012 until at least late 2015. He was healthy and active before he got the cancer diagnosis in August 2014. In a January deposition, Johnson’s treating physician testified that more than 80% of his body was covered by lesions, and that he probably had but a few months to live.”
How will Monsanto proceed? First, they’ll argue that Johnson’s cancer could have been caused by other factors. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at the jury. It could have been genetics. It could have been lifestyle. It could have been causes that are still unknown to researchers. It could have been starlight from a galaxy far, far away. Monsanto’s lawyers will try to bury the jury in reams of supposition.
Second, they’ll show the jury an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) finding that Roundup does not cause cancer. Like the FDA, the EPA has sided with major corporations in efforts to protect them. Monsanto will claim: “The federal government has asserted Roundup is safe, and that’s the end of our responsibility. The federal government is the final arbiter.” Which is to say: the truth isn’t the final arbiter.
Third, Monsanto will execute a series of acrobatic moves to prove they never suppressed evidence that Roundup causes cancer. They were simply “considering all relevant safety issues.” They were “posing various scenarios.” Their internal memos were “temporary work product” on the way to making a final judgment about Roundup’s safety. They were raising valid concerns about flawed studies that claimed Roundup was dangerous.
If all else fails, Monsanto might try to settle with Johnson—and then claim the $$ payout was simply a way to show compassion for his unfortunate condition—and move on—continuing to offer the public a fine and safe product (Roundup). No guilt admitted.
In the extreme—and I need to raise this question—might Monsanto, behind the scenes, secretly and illegally offer Johnson’s lawyer and his client a very large sum to present a weak case in court and let Monsanto win the case?
You decide.
If Monsanto has intentionally hidden the dire effects of Roundup for decades, while people have gotten sick and died, what wouldn’t they do?
Among the myriad scandals and crimes of Monsanto, here is one that sheds light on the mindset of the company. Axisoflogic.com reports (3/22/12): “In 2001, 3,600 inhabitants of the city of Anniston, Alabama, attacked Monsanto for PCB [a chlorine chemical] contamination. According to a report, declassified by the U.S. Agency of Environmental Protection (EPA), Monsanto for almost forty years dumped thousands of tons of contaminated waste in a stream and an open garbage dump in the heart of a black neighborhood in the city.”
“The way The Washington Post reported the story is instructive: ‘Monsanto documents — many emblazoned with warnings such as ‘CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy’ — show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew. In 1966, Monsanto managers discovered that fish submerged in that creek turned belly-up within 10 seconds, spurting blood and shedding skin as if dunked into boiling water. They told no one.”
“Monsanto was finally convicted in 2002 of having polluted ‘the territory of Anniston and the blood of its people with the PCB’. The firm was ordered to pay $ 700 million in damages and to guarantee the cleaning-up of the city. No legal action was brought against the company officials.”

Thanks to: https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com

Will Monsanto Finally Stand Trial for Cancer-causing Herbicide Glyphosate?

by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
A California Superior Court ruled last week that a man dying of cancer, who is suing Monsanto, can present evidence that Monsanto covered up research linking glyphosate to cancer.
Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Roundup, the world’s most prevalent herbicide used in agriculture, that has been found in 93% of Americans’ urine, most mothers’ breast milk, and is probably residing inside of every person alive on planet Earth.
Provided that the trial will go forward without any more legal maneuvering by Monsanto, 46-year-old DeWayne Johnson, who has terminal cancer and only months left to live, will take the stand against Monsanto in a California court on June 18, in what is being called a “Landmark Lawsuit.”
The Guardian is reporting:

At the age of 46, DeWayne Johnson is not ready to die. But with cancer spread through most of his body, doctors say he probably has just months to live. Now Johnson, a husband and father of three in California, hopes to survive long enough to make Monsanto take the blame for his fate.
On 18 June, Johnson will become the first person to take the global seed and chemical company to trial on allegations that it has spent decades hiding the cancer-causing dangers of its popular Roundup herbicide products – and his case has just received a major boost.
Last week Judge Curtis Karnow issued an order clearing the way for jurors to consider not just scientific evidence related to what caused Johnson’s cancer, but allegations that Monsanto suppressed evidence of the risks of its weed killing products. Karnow ruled that the trial will proceed and a jury would be allowed to consider possible punitive damages.

3 Years Since WHO Proclaimed Glyphosate Carcinogenic

There are more than 4,000 other cancer victims who have filed lawsuits against Monsanto since the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published a report linking glyphosate to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Therefore, should this case actually make it to trial, and DeWayne Johnson gets his day in court before a jury, it could set quite a precedent.
Health Impact News has previously published evidence that Monsanto concealed scientific studies linking its herbicide to cancer as far back as the 1970s.
Dr. Anthony Samsel, a research scientist who has been studying the toxicity of glyphosate for many years, reportedly obtained documents from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015 that allegedly show Monsanto knew about research connecting glyphosate to cancer since the 1970s, but kept the studies sealed claiming they constituted a “Trade Secret” on their patented herbicide product.
See:

Glyphosate Causes Cancer: EPA “Trade Secret” Sealed Files Reveal Cancer Link Known Back in the 1970s

Glyphosate Cancer Cover-up: Control Animals in Studies Also Ate Glyphosate-Contaminated Food

Dr. Samsel again shocked the world in 2016 when he conducted a study showing that the toxic glyphosate chemical was found in many childhood vaccines:

Study: Many Vaccines Contaminated with Herbicide Glyphosate

Cancer is Not the Only Disease Linked to Glyphosate

While the focus since 2015 has been on the link between glyphosate and cancer, due to the World Health Organization’s report linking it to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, there is plenty of evidence linking glyphosate to other health conditions.
MIT researcher and scientist Dr. Stephanie Seneff, who has co-authored several studies on glyphosate with Dr. Samsel, has linked glyphosate as a major co-factor behind the autism epidemic we are seeing today.
Dr. Seneff shocked the world in 2014 when she stated that at the current rates, half of the nation’s children will be autistic by 2025, and that glyphosate is a major cause of autism.
You can watch her presentation delivered to the AutismOne conference in 2014:



https://youtu.be/a52vAx9HaCI

Glyphosate is linked to many other health conditions, including disrupting our microbiome, which is a key component to digestive and cognitive health.
For more information, see our previous investigative reports:

Is Glyphosate Responsible for your Health Problems?

Glyphosate Herbicide Causes Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, Kidney Disease, and Infertility

Nearly All Food Contaminated with Glyphosate – Even Certified Organic Food

The severe problem of glyphosate contamination became quite evident to me in 2014. After publishing these reports on the problems associated with glyphosate on Health Impact News, we learned that glyphosate contamination was not restricted to just GMO foods that had been sprayed with Monsanto’s herbicide.
Dr. Don Huber had explained to us that many grain farmers in the northern U.S. states used glyphosate to “desiccate” their crops just before harvest, by spraying them with glyphosate herbicides. This allowed them to harvest wheat and other grains before snowfalls started and have more control over their harvest.
Dr. Huber stated that as a result, many non-GMO crops, such as wheat, oats, barley, etc. were contaminated with glyphosate.
I am the founder and owner of Healthy Traditions, a high-end food company that, at the time, was selling mostly USDA certified organic food from high-quality, small-scale sustainable producers.
It is one thing to read academic research making certain claims regarding food products, but we decided to test those claims by testing some non-GMO grain products in the market for the presence of glyphosate, using an internationally recognized laboratory known for testing for the presence of GMOs and herbicides.
Our tests confirmed that grain products from the northern U.S. states, as well as from Canada, had levels of glyphosate present, in spite of the fact that they were not GMO products.
We then decided to test some of our own USDA certified organic grains.
The results shocked us. Most of our grains contained almost the same levels of glyphosate as conventional, non-organic products! We checked with our suppliers, who assured us that the farmers were not spraying glyphosate on their crops. Their crops were apparently becoming contaminated from other sources, such as neighboring farms, ground water, or even rain water.
Even more troubling was our discovery that the USDA National Organic Program allowed for small amounts of glyphosate to be present in even USDA certified organic products.
We mostly abandoned using USDA organic standards, and we started testing all of our products for the presence of glyphosate.
It has taken us some time to find products that test clean for glyphosate among certain foods. Many of our products had to be sourced outside of the U.S., with many of our grains now coming from Italy, and our corn coming from a remote area of Mexico where GMO crops are banned.

Purchase foods tested for the herbicide glyphosate!

Thanks to: http://healthimpactnews.com