Roundup on trial over cancer claims

SAN FRANCISCO — Evidence that Roundup weed killer can cause cancer seems “weak,” but experts can still make that claim at trial, a U.S. judge ruled Tuesday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco allows hundreds of lawsuits against Roundup’s manufacturer, Monsanto, to move forward.

The lawsuits by cancer victims and their families say the agrochemical giant long knew about Roundup’s cancer risk but failed to warn them. Many government regulators have rejected a link between cancer and the active ingredient in Roundup — glyphosate. Monsanto has vehemently denied such a connection, saying hundreds of studies have established that glyphosate is safe.

Chhabria said the evidence, “viewed in its totality, seems too equivocal to support any firm conclusion that glyphosate causes” non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Still, the judge said he would not go as far as saying that three experts presented by the defence were “junk science” that should be excluded from trial.

Monsanto developed glyphosate in the 1970s, and the weed killer is now sold in more than 160 countries for commercial and residential use.

Monsanto also sells seeds that can tolerate being sprayed with glyphosate as the surrounding weeds die, ensuring another stream of business that has helped it dominate the market for genetically modified crops.