5,000 lawsuits filed against Bayer weedkiller Roundup in three months

German chemicals giant Bayer is facing 5,000 more lawsuits in the US against its subsidiary Monsanto due to its potentially carcinogenic pesticide Roundup, the company said Tuesday.

The 5,000 additional lawsuits were filed in the last three months, bringing the total number of charges against the company to 18,400, the company said during its presentation of second-quarter results.

Bayer has lost three cases in the US relating to its glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup, which is probably the reason behind the increase in charges against Bayer.

In all three cases Bayer has been ordered to pay large sums of money in damages. Last week, a judge in California ordered Bayer to pay a couple $86.7 million in damages.

Bayer has repeatedly claimed that studies show that glyphosate is safe, and is appealing the verdicts in all three cases.

“Significantly, the largest and most recent epidemiology studies … each found that there was no association between glyphosate-based herbicides and NHL [non-Hodgkin lympohma],” a statement from Bayer said after last week’s trial.

Bayer acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in a deal finalized last year.

Source: dpa