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When the COVID War broke out in January 2020, we noted that hundreds of millions of people, animals, and living species have been, and continue to be killed by the trillions of tons of pesticides, insecticides, and chemicals pumped into the earth, water, and air. And, of course, the artificial ingredients and preservatives added to foods and soft drinks.
Among the “alleged” killer chemicals sprayed on plants and ingested by humans is a product banned in more “advanced” nations but allowed to be sold and used in the United States: Roundup.
Bayer AG, beleaguered by over 125,000 claims that its popular weed-killer Roundup is carcinogenic and is also a people-killer, has lost an attempt to limit its liability in cases not yet filed.
The Wall St. Journal reported last Thursday that a U.S. federal judge ruled against a proposal from Bayer for a class-action settlement that would have paid out up to $9.6 billion to resolve current cases and would have limited the German company’s liability in future cases to an additional $2 billion.
The Trends Journal reported the proposed settlement in our 30 June 2020 article, “BAYER TO PAY $9.6 BILLION TO SETTLE U.S. ROUNDUP SUITS.”
Settlement Not Fair to Victims
The judge ruled Bayer’s proposal offered insufficient compensation to those who are not yet sick and those who have cancer but have not yet filed suit. It also ruled that Bayer’s plan forced such claimants to give up future legal rights. The particular cancer that Roundup (and its main active ingredient, glyphosate) is alleged to cause is Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which has a long period of latency during which it is difficult to detect. The judge objected to Bayer’s plan for a compensation fund that would run for only four years.
TRENDPOST: While the German company sells its Roundup around the world, by 2024, glyphosate, which is sold under the brand name Roundup, will be banned.
However, Roundup is still being sold and used in the U.S. because the Environmental Protection Agency classifies the product as safe, and therefore doesn’t require a warning label. That didn’t stop juries from deciding the product caused cancer in three trials so far.
The judge left the door open for Bayer to come up with another proposal, presumably one that can put a cap on the company’s liability while still benefiting those found to be victims. It’s doubtful Bayer anticipated any of this when it bought Roundup from Monsanto in 2018 for $63 million.