US cancer victims can sue makers of Roundup

HUNDREDS of people with cancer have been told they can pursue a legal claim against the makers of the world’s most popular weedkiller.

Roundup, made by US giant Monsanto, is sprayed on gardens and parks and is used by farmers producing food crops.

A San Francisco court now says cases can be brought against the firm on the basis of testimony that Roundup is potentially a cause of the blood cancer non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL).

The decision was hailed as a breakthrough by lawyers acting for hundreds of Americans.

A World Health Organisation agency judged Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate to be a ‘probable human carcinogen’ in 2015.

But later, regulators in the US and the EU concluded it was safe. As a result, the EU relicensed its use for gardens and farms earlier this year.

US district judge Vince Chhabria described the expert testimony as ‘shaky’ but, crucially, ruled that a reasonable jury could conclude – based on findings of three approved experts – that glyphosate can cause cancer in humans.

However, an expert who gave evidence on behalf of Monsanto, Lorelei Mucci, a cancer epidemiologist, said: ‘When you look at the body of literature, there’s no evidence of a positive association between glyphosate and NHL risk.’