The story comes from the United States, but has had an echo all over the world: in mid-August a Californian judge issued a sentence destined to mark an important stage in the debate on the harmfulness of glyphosate, present in numerous herbicides and related legal events. In fact, the San Francisco Court of Justice has condemned Monsanto to compensate a gardener with 289 million dollars, Dewayne Johnson, who after thirty years working as a green maintainer in several schools became ill with cancer.
The gardener's lawyers attributed to the glyphosate contained in the herbicides that sprayed about thirty times a year the cause of the lymphoma that occurred four years ago (today man is at the terminal stage). The sentence is of historical significance if we consider that there are already thousands of people with events similar to those of the 46-year-old Californian gardener who turned to justice. Dewayne Johnson was the first to bring Monsanto (whose lawyers have appealed on appeal) to court.
The argument advocated by Johnson's lawyers is that Monsanto would not correctly warn about the risks involved in using glyphosate, contained in the two products, Roundup and Ranger Pro, used by the gardener.
The controversial herbicide has been at the center of a lively debate also in Europe (we talked about it here): the point of the croc is its dangerousness and carcinogenic potential. In November of last year the EU states voted in favor of renewing the authorization to use glyphosate for another five years. In Italy (a country that has voted against) the compound remains banned, following the prohibition of the Ministry of Health of 2016, in areas frequented as parks, gardens, sports fields, green areas of educational and health facilities.
- The editorial staff -
Photo Credits: Monsanto RoundUp, 8/2014 by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube (Flickr)
