NOTE: By way of background, see the Washington Post article: "Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution PCBs Drenched Ala. Town, But No One Was Ever Told".
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A46648-2001D ec31
Like the case reported below, the Washington Post piece is about the Alabama town of Anniston and the poisoning of local residents there with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
PCBs are Monsanto's toxic oils, used as coolants and lubricants for over 50 years and now virtually omnipresent in the blood and tissues of humans and wildlife around the globe. But residents in Anniston have levels hundreds or thousands of times the average.
As The Washington Post reported, "for nearly 40 years, while producing the now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs at a local factory, Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills. And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents -- many emblazoned with warnings such as 'CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy' -- show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A46648-2001D ec31
Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group says that based on Monsanto documents made public during a trial, the company "knew the truth from the very beginning. They lied about it. They hid the truth from their neighbors."
One Monsanto memo to its employees explains their justification: "We can't afford to lose one dollar of business."
http://www.bangmfood.org/films/22-films/4-film-review-the-world-according-to-mon santo
This raises interesting questions in relation to the regulation of GM crops, as it's almost entirely dependent on trust. Regulators normally base their risk assessments on data from unpublished studies provided to them in confidence by the GM firms that developed the crop.
http://www.bangmfood.org/quotes/24-quotes/29-regulatory-breakdown
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New PCB trial begins
The Anniston Star, April 1 2009
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2251440/
A Jefferson County jury heard opening statements Tuesday in a trial accusing an Anniston plant of poisoning residents with polychlorinated biphenyls.
This is the first lawsuit to go to trial of 47 filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court on behalf of about 3,000 plaintiffs. This week's trial represents five of those plaintiffs who claim the former Monsanto company contaminated local property and waterways with PCBs, causing them illness.
Lawyers have said these claimants were left out of Anniston's 2003 PCB settlements, but have similar claims as those people.
Abernathy v. Monsanto and Tolbert v. Monsanto were settled for more than $600 million in August 2003. About 21,600 claimants were involved in those suits.
All the cases stem from Monsanto, which made PCBs at its west Anniston plant from 1929 to 1971. During that time, rain runoff carried PCBs that escaped the plant through drainage ditches to Snow Creek, which flows into Chocolocco Creek.
The chemical settled in the yards of many properties near the plant. High concentrations of PCBs, which scientists believe cause cancer and diabetes as well as other health problems, also wound up in the blood and fatty tissues of thousands of Anniston residents.
That evidence, contained within claimants' bodies, is the crux of these cases.
These cases are different from those settled in 2003 because this time, the lawyers are suing Pharmacia rather than Solutia.
In 1997, Solutia Inc. was spun off of Monsanto so that it could assume liability for the PCB cleanup and any resulting lawsuits. Solutia inherited Monsanto's chemical business while Monsanto got the agriculture business.
Then Monsanto in 2000 merged with Pharmacia and Upjohn Inc. to form Pharmacia Corp. The "new Monsanto" agreed to accept liabilities that Solutia was unable to pay.
In 2003, Pharmacia was acquired by Pfizer. That same year, Solutia filed for bankruptcy due to the millions it paid for Monsanto's PCB claims.
Therefore, the attorneys are now going after Pfizer and Pharmacia, rather than Solutia.
A Pfizer spokesman on Tuesday referred questions to Pharmacia. Pharmacia representatives did not return calls for comment.
About Megan Nichols
Megan Nichols covers Anniston and Calhoun County for The Star. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama.
To see more of The Anniston Star or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.annistonstar.com/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A46648-2001D ec31
Like the case reported below, the Washington Post piece is about the Alabama town of Anniston and the poisoning of local residents there with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
PCBs are Monsanto's toxic oils, used as coolants and lubricants for over 50 years and now virtually omnipresent in the blood and tissues of humans and wildlife around the globe. But residents in Anniston have levels hundreds or thousands of times the average.
As The Washington Post reported, "for nearly 40 years, while producing the now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs at a local factory, Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills. And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents -- many emblazoned with warnings such as 'CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy' -- show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A46648-2001D ec31
Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group says that based on Monsanto documents made public during a trial, the company "knew the truth from the very beginning. They lied about it. They hid the truth from their neighbors."
One Monsanto memo to its employees explains their justification: "We can't afford to lose one dollar of business."
http://www.bangmfood.org/films/22-films/4-film-review-the-world-according-to-mon santo
This raises interesting questions in relation to the regulation of GM crops, as it's almost entirely dependent on trust. Regulators normally base their risk assessments on data from unpublished studies provided to them in confidence by the GM firms that developed the crop.
http://www.bangmfood.org/quotes/24-quotes/29-regulatory-breakdown
---
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New PCB trial begins
The Anniston Star, April 1 2009
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2251440/
A Jefferson County jury heard opening statements Tuesday in a trial accusing an Anniston plant of poisoning residents with polychlorinated biphenyls.
This is the first lawsuit to go to trial of 47 filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court on behalf of about 3,000 plaintiffs. This week's trial represents five of those plaintiffs who claim the former Monsanto company contaminated local property and waterways with PCBs, causing them illness.
Lawyers have said these claimants were left out of Anniston's 2003 PCB settlements, but have similar claims as those people.
Abernathy v. Monsanto and Tolbert v. Monsanto were settled for more than $600 million in August 2003. About 21,600 claimants were involved in those suits.
All the cases stem from Monsanto, which made PCBs at its west Anniston plant from 1929 to 1971. During that time, rain runoff carried PCBs that escaped the plant through drainage ditches to Snow Creek, which flows into Chocolocco Creek.
The chemical settled in the yards of many properties near the plant. High concentrations of PCBs, which scientists believe cause cancer and diabetes as well as other health problems, also wound up in the blood and fatty tissues of thousands of Anniston residents.
That evidence, contained within claimants' bodies, is the crux of these cases.
These cases are different from those settled in 2003 because this time, the lawyers are suing Pharmacia rather than Solutia.
In 1997, Solutia Inc. was spun off of Monsanto so that it could assume liability for the PCB cleanup and any resulting lawsuits. Solutia inherited Monsanto's chemical business while Monsanto got the agriculture business.
Then Monsanto in 2000 merged with Pharmacia and Upjohn Inc. to form Pharmacia Corp. The "new Monsanto" agreed to accept liabilities that Solutia was unable to pay.
In 2003, Pharmacia was acquired by Pfizer. That same year, Solutia filed for bankruptcy due to the millions it paid for Monsanto's PCB claims.
Therefore, the attorneys are now going after Pfizer and Pharmacia, rather than Solutia.
A Pfizer spokesman on Tuesday referred questions to Pharmacia. Pharmacia representatives did not return calls for comment.
About Megan Nichols
Megan Nichols covers Anniston and Calhoun County for The Star. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama.
To see more of The Anniston Star or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.annistonstar.com/