Environmental lawyer, the son of the late U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew President John F. Kennedy, and his team have won a historic case claiming the product likely caused the cancer of their client.

Environmental lawyer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. son of the late U.S. Senator, Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy and nephew of the late President, John F. Kennedy, and his team, have won an historic $290 million landmark case against agricultural giant Monsanto and its glyphosate-based product “Round-up”  claiming the product likely caused the cancer of their client, plaintiff Dewayne Johnson a former school groundskeeper.

This is the first of thousands of cases of this type to go to trial and Kennedy said, "This (verdict) should send a strong message to the boardroom of Monsanto."

After an eight-week trial, it took the California jury three days to reach their verdict that the agro-chemical giant, Monsanto  (a subsidiary of German multinational pharmaceutical company, Bayer AG) and producer of the popular weed-killer, Roundup, had failed to warn Johnson and other consumers of the cancer-causing risk of their products.

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Johnson, now 46, was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma when he was 42 and attributed his terminal cancer to his extensive use of the glyphosate-containing weed-killer Round-up and other Monsanto products.

According to the Associated Press, "The jury found Monsanto acted with malice and oppression because they knew what they were doing was wrong and doing it with reckless disregard for human life," said Kennedy.

Kennedy has been an outspoken environmental champion, lawyer, and bestselling author, including his most recent “American Values, Lessons I Learned from my Family.”

Glyphosate has been named as a probable carcinogen by the U.N. and, after a lengthy court battle, is listed as a known carcinogen by the State of California.

In April, Germany drafted legislation to ban the use of glyphosate, joining 13 other countries and in January, the European Parliament agreed to set up a special committee to investigate the authorization procedure for glyphosate and other pesticides.

Glyphosate exposure is pervasive. In May, a ground-breaking study by the NUI Galway reported the Irish adult population is subject to low non-occupational exposure of glyphosate.

Monsanto has continued to maintain that its products are safe and has denied any link between glyphosate and cancer.  It will appeal the verdict.

How safe is Roundup?  You decide. In the following, video a Monsanto spokesperson says Roundup is safe but refuses to drink a glass.

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