Cancer-stricken plaintiff testifies in Monsanto weedkiller trial

SAN FRANCISCO -- The plaintiff in the first of the federal test cases arguing Monsanto's weedkiller causes cancer took the witness stand for the first time Tuesday to discuss his alleged extensive exposure to Roundup over decades of spraying.

The cancer-stricken man said he wore little to no protective equipment to avoid direct skin contact, and used roughly 5,900 gallons of the glyphosate-based product over nearly 30 years, according to an estimate by pathologist Dennis Weisenburger.

"He had really, quite high exposure to Roundup over many, many years," the plaintiff's expert said. "It was the substantial contributing cause to his development of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma."

Plaintiff Edwin Hardeman's testimony was limited to the duration and method in which he sprayed Roundup on his 56-acre property for a poison oak infestation.

Hardeman said he bought Roundup concentrate and mixed the formulation directly in a two-gallon pump sprayer. The mixture got on his hands when it would "foam out over the top," he testified.

Spraying the weedkiller would take three to four hours, he continued. He said he applied it once a month for half of the year.

In a demonstration of how he allegedly used Roundup, Hardeman raised his arms to simulate spraying it on high-reaching vegetation. He said he felt like he "breathed it in" occasionally when the wind would spread the mist.

Monsanto attorneys Brian Stekloff and Tammara Matthews Johnson of Wilkinson, Walsh & Eskovitz opted not to cross-examine the plaintiff.

Hardeman's allegations are the first to be heard in the hundreds of cases in the consolidated litigation before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco. In re Roundup Products Liability Litigation, 16-MD02741 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 4, 2016).

Since the trial is split into two phases, the jury will only hear accusations of misconduct and whether additional damages are warranted if it finds Monsanto, now owned by Bayer AG, liable for causing Hardeman's cancer.

After he excused a juror for hardship last week, Chhabria excused another because of the flu and concern over getting others sick. There are now six members of the jury, the minimum for federal court.

After Hardeman's testimony, the plaintiff's expert pathologist discussed issues of general causation and the likelihood the plaintiff's cancer was caused by his other medical conditions. The defense pressed to limit his testimony at evidentiary hearings because his methodology allegedly did not allow for inconclusive results and did not consider Hardeman's Hepatitis B, C or high body mass index.

Chhabria clarified to plaintiff's attorney Jennifer Moore of the Moore Law Group that Weisenburger can testify on the International Agency for Research on Cancer's classification of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen but that he cannot detail how it reached its conclusion.

"We're not going down the road of having to find out whose analysis is better between IARC and the EPA," he said, adding the focus is getting the jury to properly weigh the analyses of Weisenburger and defense expert epidemiologist Lorelei Mucci, who is expected to testify later this week.

Exposure to the Roundup formulation may be more likely to cause cancer than exposure to glyphosate by itself because of added substances, called surfactants, to allow the product to more easily penetrate the skin, according to Weisenburger.

Following more testimony criticizing the National Cancer Institute's Agricultural Health Study for suffering from "a lot of missing information," according to the pathologist, Moore next took aim at the defense's assertion the plaintiff's Non-Hodgkin lymphoma could have been caused by his Hepatitis C.

Weisenburger, backed by various studies Moore presented to the jury, said it is "very unlikely and almost impossible [Hardeman's] Hepatitis C caused his NHL, because he was cured nine years before he got [it]."

The trial continues Wednesday.