Herbicides cause cancer in U.S. couples Monsanto may cost $2 billion

a jury in California on Wednesday awarded Monsanto $2,055 million in damages to a couple for cancer caused by the company's "Nonda" herbicide.
a jury in Oakland County District Court found that Monsanto should have paid $1 billion in punitive damages to the two plaintiffs, combining $55 million in compensation, for causing Alva Piliod and his wife Alberta to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
, 76, told The Associated Press that the couple, who have been struggling with cancer for the past nine years, had to give up many activities since their diagnosis and that their lives had changed completely and that they "hated" Monsanto.
, Monsanto's parent company, bayer, responded the same day and will appeal the ruling. Lawyers for the Piliods say they are ready for a long-term lawsuit.
according to David Levine, a professor at the University of California, Hastings School of Law, the plaintiff's "probability" of getting $2 billion in punitive damages is "zero", which is too high compared to the compensation equivalent to the plaintiff's "actual loss" and is expected to be significantly reduced by the judge.
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that "nonda" does not pose a "risk of concern" to the human body, whether it appears on farms, courtyards or roadsides, or remains on crop surfaces. However, Monsanto faces a number of civil lawsuits because of the carcinogenic risk posed by Glyphosate, the effective herbicide ingredient, and the lack of conspicuous warning signs for the product. There are still about 13,000 Nonda plaintiffs in the U.S. awaiting trial.
Bayer found that each lawsuit had its own "facts and statutory circumstances" and that the Piliods' case would not affect the direction of subsequent litigation.
including the lawsuit, Monsanto has lost all three lawsuits in California since last August. A federal jury in San Francisco in March awarded Monsanto $80 million in damages to a man with cancer. A San Francisco District Court jury awarded Monsanto $289 million in damages to a golf course ranger last August, and the judge later reduced the damages to $89 million. Monsanto filed separate appeals against the outcome of the lawsuit. (Zhao Manjun) (Xinhua News Agency Micro Special Report)