Dow AgroSciences defeats golf course pesticide exposure claims following Frye challenge to causation experts

Client(s) Dow AgroSciences LLC

Jones Day client Dow AgroSciences LLC prevailed in a multi-defendant golf course pesticide exposure lawsuit following a successful Frye challenge that excluded plaintiff's medical causation experts who claimed that the decedent's acute myelogenous leukemia ("AML") was caused by exposure to various pesticides used on the golf courses he worked on over his nearly 40-year career. The trial court found that plaintiff's experts' opinions that pesticides, as a class, can cause AML, that any exposure to benzene can increase the risk of AML, and that exposure to Dow Agro's product was the cause of decedent's AML, among other opinions, were not in accordance with generally accepted scientific methodology and, therefore, granted the defense motions to exclude the experts' medical causation testimony under Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 ( D.C. Cir. 1923).

Richard Thomas Walsh, Exec. Estate of Thomas J. Walsh v. BASF Corp. et al., GD #10-018588 (Ct. C.P. Allegheny Cty., Pa.)