$16b weedkiller bill

Bayer agrees to settle lawsuits over Roundup cancer claims

BAYER says that it will pay up to $US10.9 billion ($15.9 billion) to settle litigation over the weedkiller Roundup, which has faced thousands of lawsuits over claims it causes cancer.

Bayer said it was also paying up to $US1.22 billion to settle two other areas of litigation, one involving toxic chemical PCB in water, and one involving dicamba, another weedkiller. The firm said the settlement over Roundup, which is made by its Monsanto subsidiary, involves about 125,000 filed and unfiled claims.

Under the agreement, Bayer pays $US8.8 billion to $US9.6 billion to resolve current litigation, and $US1.25 billion to address potential future litigation, even as the company continues to maintain that Roundup is safe.

In a statement, CEO Werner Baumann called the settlement “financially reasonable when viewed against the significant financial risks of continued, multi-year litigation”.

Monsanto developed glyphosate – a key ingredient in Roundup – in the 1970s. The weedkiller has been sold in more than 160 countries.

Bayer, which bought St Louis-based Monsanto in 2018, said last year that all government regulators that had looked at the issue have rejected a link between cancer and glyphosate.

The herbicide came under increasing scrutiny after the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organisation, classified it as a “probable human carcinogen” in 2015.

Lawsuits against Monsanto followed.

The US Environmental Protection Agency says glyphosate is safe for people when used in accordance with label directions.

Attorney Robin Greenwald of the New York law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which represented several people who filed suit against Monsanto, welcomed the settlement.