At least two Australian law firms are considering filing lawsuits against the manufacturer of Roundup after a landmark US court verdict in which a couple were awarded US$2bn after a jury agreed the weedkiller caused their cancer.

On Sunday the Sydney Morning Herald reported that a number of local councils in Sydney were reviewing their use of the product, while the Victorian state government has launched its own review of glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup.

At the same time, two Australian firms, LHD Laywers and Maurice Blackburn, are investigating a potential lawsuit against the product’s manufacturer, the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer.

It follows a decision by a jury in California ordering Monsanto – owned by Bayer – to pay more than $US2bn to a couple who got cancer after using its weedkiller, the third and largest verdict against the company over Roundup in the US.

Jonathan Walsh, principal at Maurice Blackburn, told Guardian Australia the firm had fielded “hundreds of inquiries” since late 2018 from people exposed to glyphosate.

“It’s people from all walks of life, mums and dads using the product every weekend doing the garden, to more heavy users like those involved in vegetation management in particular and also people from the farming community where they use a lot of this product day in and day out,” he said.

“So we’re actively investigating a number of cases and we’re in the stage of getting expert evidence to help support individual actions.”

Walsh said Maurice Blackburn had considered a class action but “at this stage we’re not pursuing that angle”.

“That’s not to say we’ve ruled it out, we’re still keeping it active, but we’re looking at individual cases presently,” he said.

But another firm, LHD, is currently circulating a class action investigation statement.

“Monsanto (now Bayer), the creator of Roundup, is facing claims the company failed to warn users that extended exposure to the weedkiller has been linked to certain forms of cancer,” it states.

“As a result, thousands of lawsuits have been filed by cancer victims against Monsanto in the US, alleging that the weedkiller causes cancer. Juries in two recent cases have reviewed the Roundup cancer evidence, found Monsanto liable and ordered the company to pay millions of dollars in damages to victims.

“LHD Lawyers are encouraging those affected by Monsanto’s Roundup to register their interest for a case evaluation. You may have a right to demand compensation from Monsanto for physical pain, mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, physical impairment, grief, anxiety, and emotional distress.”

The safety of Roundup, the most commonly used herbicide in the world, has been the subject of fierce debate internationally.

While Monsanto and Bayer insist the product is safe, in 2015 the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer ruled glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans”.

In April the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry published a 257-page report saying it could not rule out a link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and suggesting more research was needed.

However, in an interim decision in May, the US Environmental Protection Agency found the product does not cause cancer or other health problems if it is used according to instruction labels, and in Australia the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority says the product is safe if used correctly.

To date there have been no cases centred on the product run in Australia, but in the US Bayer has lost three court battles against people suffering cancer in the last 12 months while there are reportedly another 13,000 plaintiffs lining up to sue the company.

In May, a jury in California ruled on Monday that Monsanto was liable for the non-Hodgkin lymphoma of Alva and Alberta Pilliod. The jury ordered the company to pay $1bn in damages to each of them, and more than $55m total in compensatory damages.

That decision followed two consecutive trial wins for families taking on Monsanto over Roundup, which research has linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that affects the immune system.

Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper with terminal cancer, won a $289m victory in state court last year, and Edwin Hardeman, who sprayed Roundup on his properties, was awarded $80m in the first federal trial this year.

Following the Pillio case, Bayer released a statement saying it was “disappointed” with the decision and planned to appeal.

“We have great sympathy for Mr and Mrs Pilliod, but the evidence in this case was clear that both have long histories of illnesses known to be substantial risk factors for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), most NHL has no known cause, and there is not reliable scientific evidence to conclude that glyphosate-based herbicides were the ‘but for’ cause of their illnesses as the jury was required to find in this case,” Bayer said at the time.