If cancer has followed years of Roundup use, or if PFAS “forever chemicals” from sewage-sludge fertilizer have turned up on land you own or live near, two separate fertilizer and herbicide cancer lawsuits are active in U.S. courts as of mid-2026. The larger track is Roundup: roughly 170,000 non-Hodgkin lymphoma claims against Bayer, now heading toward a proposed $7.25 billion class settlement.1Simmons Firm. Monsanto Roundup Litigation2The New York Times. Bayer Reaches $7.25 Billion Settlement in Roundup Lawsuits The smaller and newer track targets biosolids fertilizers made from treated sewage sludge, which farmers say contaminated their land with PFAS linked to prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer.3EPA. Our Current Understanding of Human Health and Environmental Risks of PFAS
Who Can Bring a Roundup Cancer Claim
Roundup claims remain open. To qualify, a person generally must have used Roundup and been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma or a related subtype. That list includes diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and mantle cell lymphoma, among others.4Drugwatch. Roundup Lawsuit Information
Two conditions filter most would-be claimants out. You cannot have already accepted a Roundup settlement. And you have to file within your state’s statute of limitations, which varies but can be as short as one year from diagnosis. Many states apply a discovery rule that starts the clock when you learn of the illness rather than when the exposure happened.4Drugwatch. Roundup Lawsuit Information
The underlying allegation is consistent across cases: prolonged exposure to glyphosate, Roundup’s longtime active ingredient, caused or contributed to the plaintiff’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Monsanto (acquired by Bayer in 2018) knew the risk and failed to warn.5U.S. Right to Know. Monsanto Papers6IARC. IARC Monographs, Glyphosate7PubMed Central. Glyphosate Carcinogenicity and Safety Review
Federal cases are consolidated in a multidistrict litigation before Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California, which held 3,887 pending cases as of March 2026. Additional claims sit in state courts, including a multicounty litigation opened in New Jersey in June 2025.8Motley Rice. Roundup Lawsuits
The $7.25 Billion Class Settlement
On February 17, 2026, Bayer announced a proposed class settlement worth up to $7.25 billion, structured as declining capped annual payments over as many as 21 years. It is meant to resolve both existing claims and those from people who develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma within 16 years of final approval.2The New York Times. Bayer Reaches $7.25 Billion Settlement in Roundup Lawsuits It was filed as a class action in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, under the caption King v. Monsanto, and Judge Timothy Boyer granted preliminary approval on March 4, 2026.9Reuters. Bayer’s $7.25 Billion Roundup Settlement Faces Court Objections
A professional claims administrator would manage a tiered payment system. Individual payouts are projected to range from roughly $6,000 to $165,000, depending on the type of exposure, the aggressiveness of the cancer, and the claimant’s age at diagnosis. Occupationally exposed claimants diagnosed before age 60 with aggressive cancers sit at the top of the range; residential users and older claimants receive less. A “quick-pay” option offers expedited but smaller payments for residential users and people 78 or older.10Drugwatch. Roundup Settlements Unlike Bayer’s failed 2020 settlement proposal, this deal does not include an independent science panel to adjudicate future claims.11Bayer. Monsanto Announces Roundup Class Settlement Agreement
Objections, the Opt-Out Deadline, and the Supreme Court Case
The settlement has drawn sharp opposition. On May 21, 2026, attorney Ashley Keller and the Tennessee firm Frazer Law filed objections for ten cancer victims, arguing the deal violates the U.S. Constitution by binding future victims who have not yet developed cancer and imposing what the filing called “comically difficult” opt-out procedures. The objectors also challenged $675 million in proposed fees for class counsel, calling the compensation for victims “paltry” by comparison.12Investigate Midwest. Bayer’s Proposed Roundup Settlement Violates Constitution, New Legal Filing Claims The next day, Keller filed a notice of removal seeking to shift the case from Missouri state court to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, with the goal of transferring it to Judge Chhabria’s federal MDL. The objectors allege Bayer and class counsel filed in state court specifically to avoid Judge Chhabria, who has called the settlement structure “legally problematic.”13Keller Postman. Keller Postman Removes Roundup Missouri Class Case to Federal Court Monsanto moved on May 26, 2026, to send the case back to state court, calling the removal “baseless and untimely.”14Law.com. Monsanto Moves to Remand Roundup Settlement
More than 100 class members and a dozen health care companies filed formal objections ahead of the June 4, 2026, opt-out deadline. A final fairness hearing is scheduled for July 9, 2026.14Law.com. Monsanto Moves to Remand Roundup Settlement9Reuters. Bayer’s $7.25 Billion Roundup Settlement Faces Court Objections
The stakes of opting out turn on a case the U.S. Supreme Court heard on April 27, 2026, Monsanto Co. v. Durnell. The question is whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts state-law claims that Monsanto should have added a cancer warning to Roundup’s label. If the justices side with Monsanto, plaintiffs who opt out could find future failure-to-warn trials blocked by federal law. A ruling is expected by early July 2026. Settlement backers have used the pending decision to urge claimants to stay in the class, arguing guaranteed compensation beats the risk of losing future litigation rights entirely.15SCOTUSblog. Justices Debate Who Gets to Decide That Pesticide Labels Need a Cancer Warning16No-Till Farmer. In the Weeds: Glyphosate News Roundup
What Verdicts Have Actually Paid
Headline jury awards have been enormous; final payouts have not. Bayer notes that across all Roundup verdicts reaching final judgment, damages have been reduced by roughly 90 percent from the original jury figures.17Bayer. Barnes Litigation Statement DeWayne “Lee” Johnson’s $289 million verdict in 2018 was cut to $20.5 million on appeal.18Penn State Ag Law. Review of Litigation Against Monsanto Regarding the Safety of Glyphosate Edwin Hardeman’s $80 million verdict was reduced to about $25.3 million and affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.19U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hardeman v. Monsanto, Ninth Circuit Opinion The Pilliods’ $2.055 billion verdict came down to about $87 million.20FindLaw. Pilliod v. Monsanto Company A Georgia jury awarded John Barnes $2.1 billion in March 2025, and Bayer has post-trial motions pending to overturn or reduce it.21CNN. Bayer Ordered to Pay Nearly $2.1 Billion in Roundup Case Across trials, plaintiffs have won eight verdicts and Bayer ten.1Simmons Firm. Monsanto Roundup Litigation
Reformulated Residential Roundup Is Not the Product in the Lawsuits
Bayer completed a transition away from glyphosate in Roundup-branded residential products in 2023, saying the change was “exclusively geared at managing litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns.”22Chemical & Engineering News. Bayer Plans Glyphosate Reformulation The new “Exclusive Formula” products use triclopyr, fluazifop, and diquat, and some versions include imazapic. The packaging looks nearly identical to older versions, and generic glyphosate remains available from other retailers. Reformulated products are not labeled for use in vegetable or edible gardens.23Michigan State University. Not Your Mother’s Roundup Glyphosate-based Roundup continues to be sold for agricultural and commercial use, and it is the glyphosate exposure, not the new formulations, that the cancer claims concern.
PFAS Fertilizer Lawsuits
A separate line of litigation targets fertilizers made from biosolids, the treated sewage sludge that wastewater plants produce and that is then spread on farmland. In 2023 alone, more than one million dry metric tons of biosolids were applied to agricultural land across 41 states.24InvestigateTV. Experts Warn Chemicals Found in Fertilizer Could Threaten Farmland, Waterways These products can carry PFAS, synthetic chemicals that do not break down in the environment. The EPA has linked exposure to certain PFAS with increased risks of prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer.3EPA. Our Current Understanding of Human Health and Environmental Risks of PFAS
The most closely watched case involves farmers in Johnson County, Texas, who allege that a biosolids fertilizer called Granulite, produced by Synagro Technologies, contaminated their land. Testing by the county’s environmental crimes investigator found 27 individual PFAS compounds in Granulite samples, 18 of which were also detected in soil and water on the plaintiffs’ properties. Farmers reported deaths of livestock, pets, and fish, the inability to sell animals, and falling land values.25Texas A&M AgriLife. Lawsuits, Disaster Declaration After PFAS Contaminates Farms in Johnson County
Two suits followed. Farmer v. Synagro Tech, brought by five farmers in February 2024, asserts strict-liability product defect, negligence, and private nuisance; Synagro has asked a federal court to dismiss it.26Fort Worth Report. After Johnson County State of Disaster, Lawmaker Wants Limits on Chemicals in Sewage Fertilizer Farmer v. EPA, filed in June 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges the EPA failed its duty to regulate PFAS in biosolids under the Clean Water Act.25Texas A&M AgriLife. Lawsuits, Disaster Declaration After PFAS Contaminates Farms in Johnson County Johnson County declared a state of disaster in February 2025 over the contamination and was denied state and federal aid. Fort Worth has separately sued federal agencies and companies for $420 million in damages tied to PFAS in its water supply and terminated its contract with Synagro.
The Texas cases are not isolated. Farmers in Maine, Michigan, and New Mexico have reported similar contamination, including land pulled from production and herds euthanized after testing positive for PFAS. Maine, cited as one of the most heavily affected states, has reported more than 80 farms impacted and became the first state to ban land application of sewage sludge containing PFAS.27The National Desk. Family Farms and Toxic Chemicals One estimate places nearly 70 million acres of U.S. farmland at possible risk of PFAS contamination through biosolids application.28The New Lede. EPA PFAS Fertilizer Lawsuit Dismissed
Why Private Suits Are the Main Avenue
Federal regulation has not kept pace with the science. The EPA’s biosolids rules have not been substantially updated since 1993 and currently cover only nine heavy metals. There are no federal requirements to test biosolids for PFAS before spreading them on farmland.27The National Desk. Family Farms and Toxic Chemicals In January 2025, the EPA released a draft risk assessment for two PFAS compounds in sewage sludge, finding that in some scenarios, detectable levels could pose health risks above acceptable thresholds. That draft drew more than 25,000 public comments but has not been finalized as of mid-2026, and no new federal regulations on PFAS in biosolids have been proposed.29Federal Register. Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for PFOA and PFOS In September 2025, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., dismissed a separate suit by environmental groups and Texas farmers seeking to compel EPA action, ruling the court lacked jurisdiction to order the agency to regulate PFAS in sludge.28The New Lede. EPA PFAS Fertilizer Lawsuit Dismissed Fewer than a dozen states currently regulate PFAS in biosolids in any form; Minnesota and Maryland require testing, and Maine’s outright ban remains the most aggressive response.24InvestigateTV. Experts Warn Chemicals Found in Fertilizer Could Threaten Farmland, Waterways
The direction to move in depends on which track fits your situation. A non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis after Roundup use points to the class settlement and its June 4, 2026, opt-out deadline, with the Supreme Court’s decision in Durnell reshaping what an opt-out is worth. Suspected PFAS exposure from biosolids fertilizer points to state-court product-liability and nuisance claims of the kind now being tested in Johnson County, because federal rules do not yet reach the chemicals at issue.