Pesticides: Did Bayer's glyphosate cause a child's birth defects? Judgment to be heard this Thursday in Vienna

Théo's parents are convinced of the "causal link" between glyphosate and their son's disability and launched a civil action in 2018 to have this link recognized by the courts.

At the hearing on April 3 before the Vienne (Isère) judicial court , which took place after years of proceedings for the applicants, one of Bayer's lawyers, Jean-Daniel Bretzner, argued that there is "no causal link" between glyphosate and Théo's malformations, just as there is "no effect on human reproduction," citing expert reports. "There are serious, precise and consistent presumptions," retorted the Grataloup family's lawyers, including Bertrand Repolt, raising in particular "the temporal proximity" and the absence of other "external causes and elements."

55 operations for eating, speaking, breathing…

Born with his esophagus and trachea not separating properly, Theo has undergone 55 operations that allow him to eat normally, breathe and speak through a hole in his throat.

For her mother, Sabine Grataloup, her disability began in August 2006. She was using Glyper, a generic version of Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, which contains glyphosate, to weed a riding arena. She sprayed it, says Sabine Grataloup, "several times a day, without any special protection," unaware that she was "a few weeks pregnant," a key period in fetal development.

The recognition of a "causal link" between Théo's disability and the herbicide would be a "first," according to his parents, for a child exposed in utero to glyphosate. "If this liability is recognized, it will set a precedent and pave the way for additional compensation for Théo," assures Sabine Grataloup.

In 2022, the French compensation fund for pesticide victims recognized the possible link between glyphosate and Théo's malformations, and he has since received monthly compensation of €1,000.