$78 Million to Montco Man in Weed Killer Suit Roundup: Reports

ABINGTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – A Montgomery County man has reportedly been awarded $78 million in a lawsuit involving an ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup that caused him to develop blood cancer.

William Melissen, 51, of Abington Township, filed the product liability lawsuit in 2021 after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma a year earlier, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The $78 million prize was awarded by a jury in Philadelphia last week, resolving one of numerous lawsuits against Roundup maker Monsanto and its parent company Bayer AG, the newspaper said.

Melissen said he has used Roundup at home and at work since 1992. The weed killer contains the herbicide glyphosate, which is widely used in large-scale agriculture and sells hundreds of products around the world, Philly Voice said.

Although the company has won 14 of the last 20 Roundup lawsuits filed in the U.S., previous rulings have sometimes awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to individual plaintiffs, Reuters reported.

After years of litigation alleging that Roundup was carcinogenic, Monsanto announced in 2021 that it would no longer use the chemical in its personal use products.

Monsanto and Bayer maintain that glyphosate is not clearly linked to cancer, although they are currently investigating whether long-term exposure to high levels may be linked to higher rates of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Bayer settled most of the Roundup litigation for $10.9 billion in 2020, according to the company’s most recent financial report, but still faces about 58,000 lawsuits.

“We disagree with the jury’s verdict as it contradicts the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulators and their scientific assessments worldwide,” Bayer said in a statement about the $78 million verdict.