A courtroom battle between a man dying of cancer and agrochemical giant Monsanto is underway in San Francisco.
The Vallejo man is suing because he blames his disease on a chemical in the weed killer Roundup.
His case is the first of hundreds more scheduled to be heard by juries.
Dwayne Lee Johnson, 46, sat in the courtroom as his lawyer told a jury the grim facts of his diagnosis.
“The simple fact is he’s gonna die,” Johnson’s lawyer said. “It’s just a matter of time, and between now and then, he’s gonna have to use more chemo, more radiation, more whatever the heck he can to try to live another day longer.”
The married father of two is suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma and is covered with lesions on over 80 percent of his body.
In his opening argument, his lawyer told the jury that Johnson’s cancer was caused by a chemical inside the weed killer Roundup made by Monsanto. Johnson used a generic of the product in his job for the Benicia Unified School District controlling weeds.
The plaintiff’s attorney outlined his strategy, promising to go in-depth into scientific evidence that shows the weed killer causes cancer and that roundup should come with a warning label.
Johnson’s case is the first of hundreds if not thousands like it.
Johnson’s case was allowed to go first because his doctors say he doesn’t have long to live.
“This case is important because we’re going to get rulings on evidence,” another lawyer said. “We’re going to see for the first time evidence that nobody seen before, evidence that has been in Monsanto’s files we’ve obtained from the lawyers and the people…but this jury will be the first people to ever see it.”
The lawyer for Monsanto said in his opening statements that while they have sympathy for what Johnson and his family are going through, there is overwhelming scientific evidence from a variety of independent, university, and government studies that the chemical in question does not cause cancer.
They say Johnson’s cancer started long before he got his job at the school district.
The trial is expected to run at least a month, if not longer.