Home Depot Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over Sale of Roundup Weedkiller

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Home Depot is on the receiving end of a proposed class action lawsuit filed over its sale of the herbicide Roundup, which contains the probable carcinogen glyphosate.

The 24-page case out of California argues Roundup and all of its many formulations are wholly defective and dangerous to human health, as well as “unfit and unsuitable to be marketed and sold” without proper warnings as to the dangers of use of the product. Further, the plaintiff says the warnings on containers of Roundup are inadequate in that the only identified hazard is that the herbicide may cause “moderate eye irritation.” As the complaint tells it, this mild warning gives consumers the false impression that eye irritation is the only risk posed by Roundup when, in truth, glyphosate is believed to be dangerous to humans.

“Defendant thus fails to warn consumers of the potential carcinogenic risks of using Roundup,” the lawsuit reads. 

As a retail distributor of the product, Home Depot is provided a “safety data sheet” from Roundup’s manufacturer, Monsanto, that includes information on the product’s hazards, the suit says. According to the case, the safety data sheet for Roundup advises that “inhalation and skin contact are expected to be the primary routes of occupational exposure to glyphosate,” a risk consumers are not warned of on containers of the product. Also absent from Roundup containers are instructions to use a gas mask respirator while using the weedkiller, the case continues.

The lawsuit posits that reasonable consumers would not have purchased Roundup from Home Depot had they been properly warned of the apparent carcinogenic risks associated with the product. The cases asks the court to certify a class of all consumers in California who purchased at least one Roundup product, listed on page four of the document embedded below, from Home Depot for personal use.

Monsanto, who is not named as a defendant in the case, is fresh off three losses in trials in which juries found the use of Roundup was a contributing factor in the plaintiffs’ cancer diagnoses. 

The lawsuit can be read below.