SAN FRANCISCO, Unites States 12 Aug (ANA) - The maker of a commonly used weed killer has been ordered to pay $ 289m (£ 226m) to a dying groundsman who says the product contributed to his cancer.

 

A jury in San Francisco told agribusiness giant Monsanto it must pay $ 250m in punitive damages and $ 39m in compensatory damages after the firm lost a legal case.

 

The court was told Dewayne Johnson has a terminal form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma which he claims he caught after working as a pest control manager at a school.

 

Mr Johnson used Roundup and a similar product, Ranger Pro - both made by Monsanto - while carrying out the duties of his job, his lawyers said.

 

He sprayed large quantities from a 50-gallon tank attached to a truck and during gusty winds the product would cover his face, one of his lawyers Brent Wisner told the court.

 

At one point, when a hose broke, the weed killer covered his entire body.

 

Mr Johnson read the label but said he was never warned the product could cause cancer, Mr Wisner said.

 

In 2014, at the age of 42, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.(ANA)

FA/ANA/12 August 2018------