Germany-based Bayer will pay nearly $11 billion to settle thousands of current and future lawsuits over claims its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, the company announced Wednesday. Bayer CEO Werner Baumann called it “the right action at the right time.” Along with the cancer lawsuits, Bayer will also pay a billion-dollar settlement over separate lawsuits involving a second weedkiller suspected of killing farmers’ healthy crops, and toxic chemicals dumped in various water supplies in the United States.FILE – A ship passes the main chemical plant of German Bayer AG in Leverkusen, Germany, August 9, 2019. The company has agreed to settlements in cases involving its glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup.Roundup is used in more than 160 countries and will continue to be sold. Bayer’s subsidiary, Monsanto, developed Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, more than 40 years ago. A World Health Organization office declared glyphosate a “probable human carcinogen” in 2015. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it is safe as long as people follow the directions for its proper use. A California jury’s decision last August to award nearly $87 million to a couple who claimed Roundup caused their cancers was not part of Wednesday’s announced settlement. Bayer is appealing that decision along with two other jury awards.
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