In just the past two years, Auckland Council has logged at least six separate incidents where staff or contractors were doused, splashed, or directly sprayed with glyphosate-based weedkiller.
Six!
And that’s only the incidents serious enough to be formally reported and investigated.
These cases, uncovered through an Official Information Act (OIA) request, might look — at first glance — like the sort of thing that happens in the rough-and-tumble world of vegetation control. Spills happen. Hoses slip. Spray units misfire. Right?
But what if these “routine mishaps” aren’t routine at all?
What if they’re early warnings we’re simply choosing not to hear?
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: workers around the world with strikingly similar glyphosate exposures have gone on to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other life-altering illnesses. Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in the United States. Ludovic Maugé in France. Their cases weren’t one-offs — they were the beginning of a pattern no council, contractor, or insurer should be ignoring.
And Auckland Council’s reliance on glyphosate is hardly a secret. We recently covered the scale of their 2024 spraying programme — and if you haven’t seen that yet, it’s worth revisiting for context before diving deeper.
Six Glyphosate Incidents, One Clear Warning
Six separate glyphosate exposure incidents — all within two years — and yet not a single formal complaint, legal claim, or toxicology follow-up.
If that doesn’t feel like a warning sign, what would?
In response to our OIA request, Auckland Council acknowledged that while no staff member or contractor has lodged a claim in the past 24 months, there have been six internal investigations. Every single one involved glyphosate-based weedkiller.
Here’s what their own records reveal:
- A contractor’s knapsack leaked glyphosate down their back during spraying.
- A vehicle spill released glyphosate onto the ground; a small hole in the bunding box meant it wasn’t fully contained.
- An employee was splashed in the face and eye with diluted glyphosate while disconnecting a hose.
- Another knapsack leak drenched a worker’s back during routine spraying.
- A second similar leak affected yet another employee’s back.
- And in the most alarming case, a trailing knapsack wand discharged glyphosate directly into a contractor’s face and hair.
And what happened after all of this?
No independent toxicological testing.
No medical monitoring.
No precautionary health assessments.
No compensation.
Not even a process to check whether glyphosate has actually entered a worker’s system.
So, we’re left with an obvious question:
If no one is measuring exposure now, how will anyone recognise the first signs of something more serious later?
These are only the incidents that have been officially reported. It is likely that others have gone unreported or unrecorded, making the need for better protections even more urgent.
Global Lessons: What Overseas Glyphosate Cases Can Teach New Zealand
It’s easy to look at a leaking knapsack or a splash to the face and think, “Well, accidents happen.”
But these are the same kinds of “minor” exposures that, overseas, turned out to be the opening chapters in much darker stories.
Take Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, a California school groundskeeper. Johnson didn’t set out to become a symbol of glyphosate risk — he just did his job. Day after day, he applied glyphosate-based weedkillers. And day after day, he ended up with the chemical on his skin, soaking through his clothes, causing rashes and lesions that grew harder to ignore.
Then came the diagnosis: non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
A jury later agreed that Johnson’s glyphosate exposure was a substantial factor in causing his cancer. His landmark 2018 verdict against Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) initially totalled $289 million — later reduced, but still a stunning rebuke of the chemical’s safety profile.
And then there’s Ludovic Maugé in France — whose case we’ve covered previously. His story follows a hauntingly familiar pattern: years of spraying glyphosate, little meaningful protective equipment, and a slow erosion of health that doctors eventually linked to chemical exposure. His fight for recognition and compensation has dragged on for years. Long, painful, exhausting — and preventable.
So you have to wonder:
If these are the global precedents, why are we so comfortable treating similar exposures in New Zealand as just another day on the job?
Ludovic Maugé: A Cautionary Tale in His Own Words
Ludovic Maugé’s story is far from unique — but very few people outside Europe have ever heard it. This short documentary clip offers a stark, human look at his experience and why it should concern anyone who works with, lives near, or is exposed to glyphosate-based weedkillers:
It’s difficult to watch someone like Ludovic describe what happened to him and not wonder whether the same thing could unfold here. Could a worker in Auckland — one of the six already splashed or soaked — be standing in his shoes in ten or twenty years?
His experience is a sobering reminder of what’s at stake when repeated glyphosate exposures are treated as routine or “just part of the job.” Because for Ludovic, and many others overseas, those early exposures were anything but harmless.
Could Glyphosate-Related Illnesses Happen Here in New Zealand?
It’s getting harder to brush this off as coincidence.
Contractors in Auckland aren’t just getting a drop on the glove or a bit of overspray on their boots — they’re being splashed in the face, soaked down their backs, and even sprayed directly into their hair. These are the kinds of exposures that, overseas, were dismissed as minor right up until workers started receiving life-changing diagnoses.
And yet here, in New Zealand, what happens after these incidents?
No toxicological testing.
No blood or urine monitoring.
No attempt to determine whether glyphosate has actually entered a worker’s system.
No follow-up for possible long-term health effects.
Even those who try to seek private glyphosate testing encounter roadblocks — something we’ve documented in detail elsewhere.
We know that non-Hodgkin lymphoma can take years to develop after repeated pesticide exposure. That means today’s “little mishap” — the leaky knapsack, the splash to the face — could be the first step in a story we’ve seen unfold globally. And while Auckland has not yet seen legal action from exposed workers, the international trend is unmistakable: more and more employees are successfully holding employers and chemical manufacturers to account, backed by a growing body of scientific evidence.
So it’s worth asking:
Are Auckland Council and its contractors prepared for that possibility?
Because under New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act, employers have a clear duty of care to protect workers from known hazards. Repeated pesticide exposures — especially those involving a probable carcinogen — are not easily dismissed. If workers later develop illnesses linked to these incidents, the absence of monitoring, testing, and proper controls could leave councils and contractors exposed to employment disputes, personal grievances, or even legal prosecution.
The warning signs are right there. The question is whether anyone is willing to act before history repeats itself.
A Wake-Up Call for Weed Control
For decades, glyphosate-based weedkillers have been marketed as safe — almost benign. But the mounting litigation overseas and the growing number of scientific studies questioning glyphosate’s health impacts tell a very different story. Against that backdrop, Auckland Council — and every contractor spraying on public land — can’t keep treating repeated exposure incidents as minor or unavoidable.
Because at some point, “routine” stops looking routine and starts looking negligent.
There is a clear duty of care here, and it isn’t complicated. It means:
- Providing thorough, practical training, not just signing off on paperwork.
- Investing in proper protective equipment, not the bare minimum.
- Monitoring staff health over time, so early warning signs aren’t missed.
- Offering toxicological testing after exposure events, instead of assuming everything is fine.
- And seriously evaluating safer alternatives — like hot foam, steam, or mechanical weeding — rather than doubling down on a chemical with a growing question mark over it.
The wake-up call is right in front of us. The only question is whether the people responsible for Auckland’s weed control are willing to hear it.
Final Thought: What Auckland Council Should Do Next
The stories of Lee Johnson and Ludovic Maugé both began with the same reassurance we still hear in New Zealand today: “Don’t worry — it’s safe.”
And for years, they believed it.
Until one day, everything changed.
Auckland Council’s own records show that workers here are already being splashed, soaked, and sprayed with glyphosate-based weedkillers — sometimes directly to the face, sometimes down their backs, sometimes into their hair. These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re happening now.
For council leaders and contractors, this is no longer just a question of “best practice.” It’s a legal imperative. A financial imperative. A moral imperative.
Fix the leaks.
Protect the people.
Rethink the product.
Because today’s “no big deal” has an unsettling habit of becoming tomorrow’s courtroom drama — and a million-dollar reminder that ignoring early warnings is always the most expensive option.
Further Reading
If you’d like to learn more about the real-world consequences of glyphosate exposure, and why stories like those of Lee Johnson and Ludovic Maugé matter for New Zealand workers, these resources offer valuable insight:
On the Lee (Dewayne) Johnson Case
Dewayne Johnson v. Monsanto (Bayer)
– Justice Pesticides
Comprehensive case details, timeline, and legal filings from the landmark trial
Link: justicepesticides.org
Johnson v. Monsanto Co.
– Wikipedia
Trusted overview of the case, including jury awards and appeal outcomes .
Link: en.wikipedia.org
Monsanto ordered to pay $289m as jury rules weedkiller caused man’s cancer
– The Guardian
Coverage of the 2018 verdict
Link: theguardian.com
I Won a Historic Lawsuit, But May Not Live to Get the Money
– TIME
Intimate profile of Dewayne Johnson and the impact of his legal battle.
Link: time.com
Into the Weeds: The Dewayne ‘Lee’ Johnson Story
– Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network
Background on the 2022 documentary that chronicles the case journey.
Link: panna.org
On the Ludovic Maugé Case
Glyphosate Exposure: The Forgotten Victims
– nomoreglyphosate.nz
Our in-depth look at Ludovic Maugé’s story and the struggles he faced trying to hold employers accountable.
Link: nomoreglyphosate.nz
Pesticides: a life ruined by glyphosate
– Euronews
English-language feature on Maugé’s decades of exposure, diagnosis, and recognition as having an occupational disease euronews.com
EU’s pesticide decision faces criticism as glyphosate is tied to worker’s rare cancer
– Environmental Health News
Overview of how Maugé’s case influenced EU policy debates and official recognition.
Link: euronews.com
A life destroyed by glyphosate: The tragic case of Ludovic Maugé
– Pugnalom
An independent account highlighting his diagnosis, treatment, and criticisms of regulatory approval.
Link: Pugnalom.io. Update: 16 January 2026. This site appears to be offline.
These stories underline a simple but powerful message: no exposure is too small to ignore, and no worker deserves to face these risks alone.
Image Source & Attribution
A big thank you to the creators at Pixabay.com for making their images freely available for projects like ours. Bernd Hildebrandt created the image featured on this page. You can explore more of his work here: Pixabay.
