Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA -----------------------------x IN RE: ROUNDUP PRODUCTS ) MDL No. 2741 LIABILITY LITIGATION ) ) Case No. ______________________________) 16-md-02741-VC THIS DOCUMENT RELATES TO ALL ) CASES ) ______________________________) CONFIDENTIAL - SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER VIDEOTAPED DEPOSITION OF AARON EARL BLAIR, Ph.D. WASHINGTON, D.C. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2017 8:59 A.M. Reported by: Leslie A. Todd Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 2 1 Deposition of AARON EARL BLAIR, Ph.D., held at the 2 offices of: 3 4 5 HOLLINGSWORTH, LLP 6 1350 I Street, N.W. 7 Suite 1000 8 Washington, DC 20005 9 (202) 898-5800 10 11 12 13 14 Pursuant to notice, before Leslie Anne Todd, Court 15 Reporter and Notary Public in and for the District of 16 Columbia, who officiated in administering the oath to 17 the witness. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 3 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 3 ON BEHALF OF PLAINTIFFS: 4 MICHAEL MILLER, ESQUIRE [email protected] 5 NANCY GUY ARMSTRONG MILLER, ESQ. 6 JEFFREY TRAVERS, ESQUIRE [email protected] 7 MILLER FIRM, LLC 8 108 Railroad Avenue 9 Orange, Virginia 22960 10 (540) 672-4224 11 -and- 12 KATHRYN M. FORGIE, ESQUIRE [email protected] 13 AIMEE H. WAGSTAFF, ESQUIRE (Telephonically) [email protected] 14 ANDRUS WAGSTAFF, PC 7171 West Alaska Drive 15 Lakewood, Colorado 80226 (310) 339-8214 16 17 ON BEHALF OF MONSANTO COMPANY: 18 ERIC G. LASKER, ESQUIRE [email protected] 19 JOSEPH G. HOLLINGSWORTH, ESQUIRE [email protected] 20 ELYSE A. SHIMADA, ESQUIRE [email protected] 21 HOLLINGSWORTH, LLP 22 1350 I Street, N.W., Suite 1000 23 Washington, DC 20005 24 (202) 898-5800 25 Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 4 1 A P P E A R A N C E S (Continued) 2 3 ON BEHALF OF THE WITNESS: 4 DAVID S. GREENE, ESQUIRE 5 LAW OFFICES OF DAVID S. GREENE, LLC 6 611 Rockville Pike 7 Suite 225 8 Rockville, Maryland 20852 9 (301) 279-7600 10 11 ALSO PRESENT: 12 DANIEL HOLMSTOCK (Videographer) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 5 1 C O N T E N T S 2 EXAMINATION OF AARON EARL BLAIR, Ph.D. PAGE 3 By Mr. Miller 11, 263, 296 4 By Mr. Lasker 89, 293 5 6 7 8 9 E X H I B I T S 10 (Attached to transcript) 11 BLAIR DEPOSITION EXHIBITS PAGE 12 No. 1 Curriculum Vitae of Aaron Earl Blair, 13 February 6, 2017 18 14 No. 2 IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of 15 Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, 16 Preamble, Lyon, France 2006 23 17 No. 3 IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of 18 Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Volume 19 112 36 20 No. 4 Document titled "Glyphosate" 45 21 No. 5 Article entitled "Carcinogenicity of 22 Tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, 23 malathion, diazinon, and glyphosate" 66 24 No. 6 International Agency for Research on 25 Cancer, World Health Organization paper 71 Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 6 1 E X H I B I T S C O N T I N U E D 2 (Attached to transcript) 3 BLAIR DEPOSITION EXHIBIT PAGE 4 No. 7 NAPP Poster Presentation, Bates 5 MONGLY00340901 to MONGLY00340902 80 6 No. 8 E-mail string re IARC - NAPP 7 Epidemiology Study Abstract re: 8 Glyphosate and NHL, Bates 9 MONGLY02365099 to MONGLY02365101 82 10 No. 9 Environmental Health Perspectives, 11 IARC Monographs: 40 Years of 12 Evaluating Carcinogenic Hazards to 13 Humans, Bates MONGLY01154782 to 14 MONGLY01154819 85 15 No. 10 E-mail re Monograph Meeting 98 16 No. 11 E-mail string re Monograph Meeting 99 17 No. 12 Volume 112 - Overview of assignments 104 18 No. 13 Handwritten notes 122 19 No. 14 E-mail string re Minutes from NAPP 20 Meeting on October 20 130 21 No. 15 E-mail re Proposal to analyze 22 Glyphosate exposure and NHL risk in 23 NAPP 133 24 25 Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 7 1 E X H I B I T S C O N T I N U E D 2 (Attached to transcript) 3 BLAIR DEPOSITION EXHIBIT PAGE 4 No. 16 OCRC: An Detailed Evaluation of 5 Glyphosate Use and the Risk of Non- 6 Hodgkin Lymphoma in the North 7 American Pooled Project (NAPP) 145 8 No. 17 Article entitled "Cancer Incidence 9 Among Glyphosate-Exposed Pesticide 10 Applicators in the Agricultural Health 11 Study" 152 12 No. 18 Article entitled "Differences in the 13 Carcinogenic Evaluation of Glyphosate 14 Between the International Agency for 15 Research on Cancer and the European 16 Food Safety Authority" 158 17 No. 19a DRAFT - Risk of total and cell 18 Specific non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and 19 pesticide use in the Agricultural 20 Health Study 165 21 No. 19b DRAFT - Lymphoma risk and 22 pesticide use in the Agricultural 23 Health Study 165 24 25 Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 8 1 E X H I B I T S C O N T I N U E D 2 (Attached to transcript) 3 BLAIR DEPOSITION EXHIBIT PAGE 4 No. 20 Article entitled "Non-Hodgkin 5 Lymphoma and Occupational Exposure to 6 Agricultural Pesticide Chemical Groups 7 and Active Ingredients: A Systematic 8 Review and Meta-Analysis" 178 9 No. 21 E-mail re: A second thought about the 10 Rejection of the NHL manuscript 200 11 No. 22 E-mail string dated September 16, 2016 210 12 No. 23 E-mail string re Interview with Betty 13 Jibben and the Farm Journal 217 14 No. 24 E-mail string re Quick question from 15 Carey Gillam 220 16 No. 25 E-mail string From Marie-Monique 17 Robin/On behalf of Kathleen Guyton 221 18 No. 26 E-mail string re IARC 225 19 No. 27 WHO Q&A on Glyphosate, 1 March 2016 228 20 No. 28 E-mail string re Meeting on Glyphosate 21 05/16/16 at 10AM 230 22 No. 29 E-mail string re Pesticide Exposure 23 and Cancer 232 24 No. 30 E-mail string re EPA and glyphosate 235 25 Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 9 1 E X H I B I T S C O N T I N U E D 2 (Attached to transcript) 3 BLAIR DEPOSITION EXHIBIT PAGE 4 No. 31 E-mail string re Glyphosate and NHL 5 Presentation (ISEE Conference) 239 6 No. 32 E-mail string re Glyphosate and NHL 7 Presentation (ISEE Conference) 243 8 No. 33 E-mail string re Your Departure 9 6ZHHOW: IAD-LHR 1 Mar 2015 18:30 246 10 No. 34 OCRC: A Detailed assessment of 11 glyphosate use and the risks of non- 12 Hodgkin lymphoma overall and by 13 major histological sub-types: 14 Findings from the North American 15 Pooled Project, June 10, 2016 250 16 No. 35 E-mail string re EU glyphosate review 255 17 No. 36 Article entitled "Increased Cancer 18 Burden Among Pesticide Applicators and 19 Others Due to Pesticide Exposure" 266 20 No. 37 EHP ISEE - Conference Abstracts, 21 2015 Conference 274 22 23 24 25 Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS Confidential - Subject to Protective Order Page 10 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 ------------------ 3 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We are now on the 4 record. My name is Daniel Holmstock. I'm the 5 videographer for Golkow Technologies. Today's date 6 is March 20th, 2017, and the time is 8:59 a.m. 7 This deposition is being held at the law 8 offices of Hollingsworth, LLP, at 1350 I Street, 9 Northwest, in Washington, D.C., in the matter of 10 In Re Roundup Products Liability Litigation, MDL 11 No. 2741. The case is pending before the United 12 States District Court of the Northern District of 13 California. 14 Our deponent today is Dr. Aaron Blair. 15 Counsel, would you please identify 16 yourselves and whom you represent. 17 MR. MILLER: Yes, good morning. I'm 18 Michael Miller, and I represent the plaintiffs, 19 together with my law partner Nancy Miller, law 20 partner Jeff Travers, and an attorney from Denver 21 Kathryn Forgie. 22 MS. FORGIE: With Andrus Wagstaff. 23 MR. LASKER: David? 24 MR. GREENE: I'm sorry. David Greene. I 25 represent Dr. Blair. Golkow Technologies, Inc. - 1.877.370.DEPS