In March 2015, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published an evaluation of several herbicides including glyphosate. The IARC found that glyphosate (and/or commercial formulations of glyphosate, of which Roundup is the most common) was a probable human carcinogen, and, in particular, that there was a positive association between glyphosate and NHL.

The IARC also found “sufficient evidence” that glyphosate (and/or commercial formulations containing glyphosate):

(i) caused genotoxicity (genetic damage) and oxidative stress in humans, both of which are mechanisms for the formation of cancers; and
(ii) caused cancer in animals.

Historically, Roundup has been marketed by Monsanto as not harmful to humans and other mammals. However, we allege a number of factors which indicate that Monsanto knew, or ought to have known, that Roundup was carcinogenic and about the risk that use of and/or exposure to Roundup increases a person’s risk of developing NHL. These include that:

• the initial tests undertaken by Monsanto to support the registration of glyphosate were later found to have been invalid and unreliable,
• information existed from at least 1981 which showed that Roundup Products/glyphosate were potentially carcinogenic, and
• glyphosate had been identified by the US EPA in March 1985 to be possibly carcinogenic to humans.