Monsanto ordered to pay $857m to ex-students of Seattle school for toxic leaks

Parent volunteers and students claimed polychlorinated biphenyls leaked from the firm’s light fixtures made them sick

A jury in Washington state on Monday ordered Bayer’s Monsanto to pay $857m to former students and parent volunteers of a school north-east of Seattle who claimed that chemicals known as PCBs made by the company leaked from light fixtures and made them sick, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The jury found the company liable for selling polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used in the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. The verdict included $73m in compensatory damages, and $784m in punitive damages, according to Henry Jones, an attorney at the law firm Friedman Rubin, who represents the plaintiffs.

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Popular weedkiller Roundup on trial again as cancer victims demand justice

A long list of upcoming trials complicating Bayer’s efforts to escape the costly, ongoing litigation over the health effects of Roundup

Cancer has taken an unrelenting toll on 72-year-old Mike Langford. After being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in 2007 he suffered through five recurrences despite multiple rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. Now he struggles with chemo-related neuropathy in his arms and legs, and new tests show the cancer is back.

Langford blames his cancer on his longtime use of the popular weed-killing product Roundup, which he applied countless times over decades using a backpack sprayer around his five-acre California property and a vacation lake home. He alleges in a lawsuit that Monsanto, the longtime Roundup maker now owned by the German company Bayer AG, should have warned of a cancer risk.

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Three US teachers who sued Monsanto over chemical exposure awarded $185m

Teachers, who worked in Monroe, Washington, said they suffered brain damage from exposure to PCBs in fluorescent lighting

Three schoolteachers in Washington state who sued the chemical company Monsanto over exposure to materials in fluorescent lights have been awarded $185m.

The law firm that represented the teachers, Friedman Rubin, said a jury returned the verdict on Tuesday in King county superior court. The teachers, who worked at the Sky Valley education center in Monroe, Washington, said they suffered brain damage from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the fluorescent lighting at the school.

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Revealed: Monsanto predicted crop system would damage US farms

Internal documents describe how to profit from farmer losses and desire to oppose some independent testing

The US agriculture giant Monsanto and the German chemical giant BASF were aware for years that their plan to introduce a new agricultural seed and chemical system would probably lead to damage on many US farms, internal documents seen by the Guardian show.

Risks were downplayed even while they planned how to profit off farmers who would buy Monsanto’s new seeds just to avoid damage, according to documents unearthed during a recent successful $265m lawsuit brought against both firms by a Missouri farmer.

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Revealed: Monsanto’s secret funding for weedkiller studies

The research, used to help avoid a ban, claimed ‘severe impacts’ on farming if glyphosate was outlawed

Monsanto secretly funded academic studies indicating “very severe impacts” on farming and the environment if its controversial glyphosate weedkiller were banned, an investigation has found.

The research was used by the National Farmers’ Union and others to successfully lobby against a European ban in 2017. As a result of the revelations, the NFU has now amended its glyphosate information to declare the source of the research.

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Revealed: how Monsanto’s ‘intelligence center’ targeted journalists and activists

Internal documents show how the company worked to discredit critics and investigated singer Neil Young

Monsanto operated a “fusion center” to monitor and discredit journalists and activists, and targeted a reporter who wrote a critical book on the company, documents reveal. The agrochemical corporation also investigated the singer Neil Young and wrote an internal memo on his social media activity and music.

The records reviewed by the Guardian show Monsanto adopted a multi-pronged strategy to target Carey Gillam, a Reuters journalist who investigated the company’s weedkiller and its links to cancer. Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, also monitored a not-for-profit food research organization through its “intelligence fusion center”, a term that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies use for operations focused on surveillance and terrorism.

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Science institute that advised EU and UN ‘actually industry lobby group’

International Life Sciences Institute used by corporate backers to counter public health policies, says study

An institute whose experts have occupied key positions on EU and UN regulatory panels is, in reality, an industry lobby group that masquerades as a scientific health charity, according to a peer-reviewed study.

The Washington-based International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) describes its mission as “pursuing objectivity, clarity and reproducibility” to “benefit the public good”.

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Monsanto must pay couple $2bn in largest verdict yet over cancer claims

California jury holds makers of Roundup weedkiller responsible for couple contracting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

A California jury has ordered Monsanto to pay more than $2bn to a couple that got cancer after using its weedkiller, marking the third and largest verdict against the company over Roundup.

A jury in Oakland ruled Monday that Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, was liable for the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) cancer of Alva and Alberta Pilliod. The jury ordered the company to pay $1bn in damages to each of them, and more than $55m total in compensatory damages.

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Bayer to Sell $9 Billion in Assets to Get Green Light for Monsanto Deal

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday granted antitrust approval to Bayer AG's planned acquisition of Monsanto Co., reports the Wall Street Journal , after requiring the German company to sell off nearly $9 billion in assets as a means of preserving competition. The Bayer assets are being sold to chemicals rival BASF SE.

GOP lawmakers take aim at cancer research group over Roundup

In this Jan. 26, 2017, file photo, containers of Roundup, a weed killer made by Monsanto, is seen on a shelf at a hardware store in Los Angeles. Republican lawmakers are threatening to cut off U.S. funding for the World Health Organization's cancer research program over its finding that the glyphosate herbicide Roundup is probably carcinogenic to humans.

Trump’s CEO meetings raise ethics questions

In this Jan. 13, 2017, photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. Trump's meetings this week with CEOs seeking federal approval for major mergers are raising red flags for ethics lawyers concerned that about the possible erosion of a firewall between the regulators tasked with approving the billion-dollar deals and the White House.

Highlights From Senate Hearing On Ag Consolidation

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SENATE HEARING ON AG CONSOLIDATION Sep. 21, 2016 AP reports: Top officials for Monsanto and Bayer defended their proposed $66 billion merger before skeptical senators on Tuesday, insisting that the deal would lead to greater investments in technology that could help American farmers. Monsanto, the American seed and weed-killer, and Bayer, the German medicine and farm-chemical maker, responded to concerns from Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Crop science execs defend mergers; NC Senator cites regulation as driving deals

Top officials for Monsanto and Bayer defended their proposed $66 billion merger before skeptical senators on Tuesday, insisting that the deal would lead to greater investments in technology that could help American farmers. Monsanto, the American seed and weed-killer, and Bayer, the German medicine and farm-chemical maker, responded to concerns from Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

UPDATE 1-Japan, S.Korea block certain U.S. wheat varieties over GMO concerns – USDA

A combine drives over stalks of soft red winter wheat during the harvest on a farm in Dixon, Illinois, July 16, 2013. Japan and South Korea have both taken steps to block certain imports of U.S. wheat after unapproved genetically-modified plants from Monsanto Co seeds were found growing in Washington state, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday.