A San Francisco jury in 2018 awarded a former school district groundskeeper, Dewayne Johnson, $289 million ($39 million compensatory; $250 million punitive) in his lawsuit claiming that Monsanto’s glyphosate weedkiller, marketed as Roundup, was a primary cause of his terminal cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In his job, Johnson had sprayed Ranger Pro, a high-concentration version of Roundup, for two or three hours, 20 or 30 times annually. The judge subsequently reduced Johnson’s award to $78 million. Johnson, age 46 in 2018, testified that he wore masks and other protective clothing, but he was exposed to windblown glyphosate nonetheless. 

Question

Since accidents and user carelessness are inevitable and predictable with potentially hazardous products like consumer chemicals and gasoline containers, do you think manufacturers and others in the chain of distribution should bear legal responsibility, regardless of fault, for injuries and deaths from those products? Explain.