Roses are blooming, cornfields are abundant, lawns are lush and gardeners, farmers, and landscapers across the country are using herbicides to rid their flower beds and crops of pesky weeds. And many are using the popular product Roundup.
But in doing so they risk their very lives. Roundup, made by Monsanto and sold at local hardware stores and nationally by outlets such as Home Depot, has been linked to cancer. And while the manufacturer insists that Roundup is not a carcinogen, juries have disagreed, producing large verdicts against the company, including those of $2 billion and $80 million for California plaintiffs who claimed they got non-Hodgkin lymphoma from using Roundup. A third case resulted in a $289 million jury award for a former groundskeeper who blamed his terminal cancer on Roundup. (That verdict was reduced to $78.5 million.)
Some 125,000 lawsuits have been filed and cases continue to sprout like the very weeds Roundup is intended to eradicate. German chemical company Bayer AG, which bought Monsanto in 2018, has reportedly settled all but about 30,000 of those lawsuits and is said to be considering ending U.S. retail sales of Roundup to reduce the number of more potential litigation.
Kline & Specter, PC, a nationally prominent firm with more than 40 attorneys, five of whom are also medical doctors, the most of any firm in the United States, has filed lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of individuals. Most lawsuits from around the nation have been filed in Missouri - Monsanto’s headquarters – but many also have been filed in Pennsylvania. Unlike many other law firms, Kline & Specter is not joining its cases in “multidistrict litigation” but is assessing and handling cases individually.
The law firm has won billions in verdicts and settlements in personal injury cases and provides free case evaluations. It handles cases in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and nationwide. Learn more.
The ingredient in Roundup linked to cancer is glyphosate, which has been associated largely with non-Hodgkin lymphoma but also other cancers, such as multiple myeloma. One news report noted that studies also indicated a link between Roundup and brain cancer in children caused by parental exposure to glyphosate two years before a child's birth.