Monsanto owner Bayer sued in Australia over cancer linked to Roundup

An Australian farmer has launched a legal action against Bayer agricultural chemicals unit Monsanto after being diagnosed with a type of leukemia.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), New South Wales farmer Ross Wild was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma last year after using Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup on his farming property near the border of NSW and Victoria since 1976. Monsanto is currently owned by Bayer.

Wild claims that long-term exposure to Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, was to blame. He will be represented by managing partner Tony Carbone of Carbone Lawyers, according to ABC.

In June, Carbone Lawyers filed a lawsuit against Bayer on behalf of an Australian gardener, claiming severe harm caused by Roundup. That was the first such case in Australia.

The lawsuit follows court rulings in the United States linking Roundup’s main ingredient, glyphosate, to cancer, which has already taken tens of billions of euros off Bayer’s market value.

The German pharmaceutical company is currently facing more than 13,000 US lawsuits on the glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer’s potential health risks. The company denies those allegations.

In April, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reaffirmed that the active ingredient found in Roundup is safe.

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