This week, the controversial glyphosate from Bayer returned to the spotlight due to a new agreement in which the company agreed to pay $7.25 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits in the United States.
The claims accuse the company of failing to warn about the carcinogenic risks of the herbicide Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate.
The proposal was submitted to the St. Louis Circuit Court in Missouri and includes annual payments over 21 years.
The amounts vary according to the level of exposure, the age at diagnosis, and the severity of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
How much each affected person will receive
The profiles and amounts established in the agreement are as follows. Agricultural, industrial, or gardening workers diagnosed before the age of 60 will receive around USD 165,000.
Residential users diagnosed between the ages of 60 and 77 will receive an average of USD 20,000, while those over 78 will receive USD 10,000.
Attorney Christopher Seeger highlighted that the agreement aims to offer “significant compensation” for both current and future cases.
However, some legal representatives consider the amounts insufficient and anticipate that many clients may choose not to participate.
Bayer does not admit guilt and defends glyphosate
The agreement does not imply acknowledgment of guilt or responsibility by Bayer. The company maintains that glyphosate is safe and that the federal authorization by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should prevail over stricter state regulations.
This argument will be analyzed in the Supreme Court in April, with the support of the Donald Trump administration, which reversed the stance adopted by the Biden administration.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), on the other hand, classifies glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen”.
In U.S. courts, individual cases have obtained up to 2.1 billion dollars in favorable verdicts for plaintiffs. To date, more than 130,000 claims have been resolved, but around 65,000 cases remain pending.
The latency period of cancer also poses a risk of new cases in the coming years. Bayer has allocated a total of 13.9 billion dollars to address litigation related to Roundup and recently increased its provision by 4.7 billion.
Judicial pressure led the company to withdraw Bayer’s glyphosate from the residential version of Roundup in the United States, although it remains present in agricultural products.
Meanwhile, the company is pushing for legislative changes in various states to limit the liability of pesticide manufacturers: North Dakota and Georgia have already passed laws to that effect.
