Sharlean Gordon’s daughter testified that her mom sprayed the weed killer product Roundup regularly in a large yard, while plaintiff attorneys showed documents indicating that Monsanto officials were worried the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) might change its mind about the spray.
The EPA had earlier decided there was no link between glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Roundup, and the development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the blood.
The trial in the 21st Circuit Court of Missouri in St. Louis County is being streamed live courtesy of Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Gordon claims that Roundup caused her to develop NHL, also called large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), a rare cancer of the blood. Diagnosed with the disease in 2006, Gordon underwent treatments and the cancer went into remission but recurred requiring further treatments. Gordon was in remission after 2009 but she still has to visit doctors checking for a possible relapse.
The lawsuit seeks damages for medical bills, anxiety, physical pain and suffering caused by the disease including the continuing worry today that it could again recur.
On Thursday Misty Jones, Gordon’s daughter, told a jury that during treatments for cancer her mother was sick and bed-bound and then confined in a wheel chair for several years. Jones said she and her mother used the Roundup on a large (three-lot) residential property in Pekin, Ill. including flower beds and a swimming pool surrounded by mulch.
“Did you spray the Roundup with your mom?” Fidelma Fitzpatrick the attorney for Gordon asked.
“Oh yeah, I would help her spray it several times a month,” Jones answered.
Jones added that after the death of her grandfather yardwork was a diversion from grief for her mother.
“It was her escape,” she said.
Jones was in high school at the time of her mother’s illness and treatments. Gordon spent several months in a hospital in Chicago and then was moved to a nursing home. Jones went to both locations to serve as a care giver for her mother.
“What was it like?”
“Scary,” Jones said. “I was 17, I had no experience with death it was very hard.”
“How did you feel about it?
“I felt that it was over (fatal),” Jones said.
Jones said because of the illness she missed her high school prom and graduation.
A stem cell transplant was done on Gordon because the initial treatments were not effective.
Jones said she performed functions including hooking up an intravenous feeding device (IV), helping administer and order medicines, cleaning up body waste from incontinence and providing moral support and other duties.
“How long was the recovery process?” Fitzpatrick asked.
“Years,” Jones responded.
“What was her condition when compared to prior to the illness?”
“She was weak,” Jones said. “She tried to bounce back but she was not the same. She struggles with her energy.”
When Fitzpatrick exhibited a photo of Jones at her wedding with her mother who was ill at the time and wearing a mask, Jones broke into tears. A courtroom break was called.
When the session resumed Jones said doctors decided on a bone marrow transplant because without it the cancer could turn into acute leukemia. Doctors had to decide if the condition was dangerous enough to warrant the transplant and if Gordon could physically handle it. The transplant was approved.
“They did the stem cell fast,” Jones said.
“Who was the stem cell donor?” Fitzpatrick asked.
“Me,” Jones said.
The transplant was a two-day process removing bone marrow from Jones.
During the playing of a deposition tape filmed in 2019, Monsanto product safety toxicologist Michael Koch, in answer to a question from plaintiff attorney Brent Wisner, said the company had never done a long-term carcinogenetic study.
Nevertheless he described the company’s testing of the product as “very robust.”
“Is it Monsanto’s responsibility to ensure safety?” Wisner asked.
“Monsanto does,” Koch answered. “It generates data and submits it to regulatory agencies to review.”
During this and other Roundup trials, defense attorneys have relied heavily on an Agricultural Health Study in 2018 funded by the National Cancer Institute and the EPA finding that no association existed between glyphosate and cancer. Plaintiff attorneys have cited a 2015 finding by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen.
An exhibited email from Monsanto product safety lead director William Heydens in response to the IARC finding said the EPA might do a reassessment of Roundup.
“He (Heydens) was worried,” Wisner said. “They (EPA) might do their own cancer review. He was concerned.”
“It doesn’t say concerned,” Koch said of the email. “It said it could cause them (EPA) to (reevaluate).”
Emails also contained a statement from Heydens that the issue was “getting huge” and that it was a $1 billion question referring evidently to company profits if the EPA reopened their cancer review and decided that Roundup was toxic.