- In short: Aclass action has started involving800 Australians who allege exposure to Roundup caused their non-Hodgkinlymphoma
- What’s next? The Federal Court trial in Melbourne will take nine weeks during which Justice Michael Lee will be asked to consider the reliability of scientific studies into the Roundup's key ingredient, glyphosate
The Federal Court in Melbourne has begun hearing a class action against the manufacturers of one of the world's biggest selling weed killers, Roundup.
The class action involves 800 Australianswho have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The nine week trial will hear from expert witnesses about whether glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide which is the key ingredient in Roundup, is carcinogenic to humans and can cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
If that is accepted by the court, it will then be asked whether the manufacturers, Monsanto and its Australian division Huntsman Chemical Company(previously Monsanto Australia) were negligent regarding the risks posed by its products.
Outside court, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers national head of class actions, Andrew Watson,said most of his clients were exposed to Roundup through their work in the agricultural sector, but some were domestic users who used the weed killer around their properties.
"Our lead applicant, Mr (Kelvin) McNickle is a person who worked for his family's vegetation management business spraying weeds on the side of highways and so on for effectively every day for 20 years," Mr Watson said.
"Monsanto and parent company Bayer have behaved like many multi-nationals confronted with this situation," he said.
"They've done everything they can to disparage… the science which shows that their product is a dangerous product to human health and they've done everything they can to put profit before people."
Lead applicant's cancer has returned
In his opening address for the applicants, Andrew Clements KC told the court Mr McNicklewas first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in May 2018 and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment before going into remission in 2019.
But the court heardthe 40-year-old, who now lives in Caloundra in Queensland,wasdiagnosed with NHL a second time, just six weeks ago.
Mr Clements told the court Mr McNickle was also exposed to two of Monsanto's Roundup products — Roundup Herbicide and Roundup Bioactive – throughout his childhoodwhen he helped his father kill weeds on their property near Coffs Harbour in New South Wales.
It was alleged he haddirect contact with the products as they dripped or leaked onto his skin andclothes as well as through mist which would get onto his skin, into his eyes and onto his clothes.
Mr Clements told the court the active ingredient in both products was glyphosate and they contained other surfactants to help increase the absorption of Roundup into plants.
He said those surfactants also increased absorption through human skin into the bloodstream.
Mr Clements alleged glyphosate causedgenetic mutations in human lymphocytes that caused NHL as well as damaginghuman DNAwhich he alleged also caused NHL.
"Mr McNickle contends that any use of, or exposure to, Roundup Herbicide and Roundup Bioactive increases an individual's risk of developing NHL and could cause an individual to develop NHL," Mr Clements told the court.
"The greater the duration and/or intensity of exposure of Roundup Herbicide and Roundup Bioactive, the greater the increase in the exposed individual's risk of developing NHL."
He said Mr McNickle and the other class action members would not have to prove which particular exposure or dose caused their cancer, citing lung cancer trials against tobacco companies where applicants did not have to prove the precise mechanism throughwhich cigarettes causedcancer, but instead relied on the scientific evidence in the field.
"Mr McNickle contends that the body of epidemiological literature provides generally supportive evidence that exposure to glyphosate and/or GBFs increases an individual's risk of developing NHL and, therefore, that glyphosate and/or GBFs are carcinogenic to humans."
Defence to question reliability of scientific evidence
Mr Clements said the defendants would tell the court about how studies that showed glyphosate may be carcinogenic were flawed and that they would take an approach he described as"ignore the smoke, there is no fire here".
In the defence's opening submissions, Steven Finch SC confirmed the majority of Monsanto's response wouldfocus on the reliability of scientific studies into glyphosate.
"We make no apology at all for concentrating on flaws of studies that are dangled in front of Your Honour," Mr Finch told the court.
He warned Justice Michael Lee not to "fall into the trap" thatfinding that something was capable of causing cancer meant "it might cause cancer", saying that particularfinding also meant that it might not cause cancer.
"That's the other half of 'might'," Mr Finch said.
"A key failure that infects the whole of the applicants'case … is to fail to grapple with this point."
He said it was a complex case and Justice Lee would have to "marshalla lot of findings of fact".
The product continues to be sold in Australia, and Monsanto's parent company Bayer insists Roundup is safe.
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