Monsanto's Global Pollution Legacy

Anniston wasn't the only place where toxics were dumped for years by Monsanto; Sauget, Illinois near the banks of the Mississippi river is another notable case (2) [14] [15]. In fact Greenpeace alleges that "Monsanto has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as being the 'potentially responsible party' for no fewer than 93 contaminated sites (Superfund Sites) in the U.S" [16]. See also Chemical giant ignored in pollution scandal about the case of a Missouri town, Times Beach, evacuated in 1983 due to dioxin and pcb contamination. Also see The Little Town That Whipped Monsanto.

It's also recently been revealed that Monsanto followed a similar pollution path in the UK's south Wales. "Evidence has emerged that the Monsanto chemical company paid contractors to dump thousands of tonnes of highly toxic waste [PCBs] in British landfill sites, knowing that their chemicals were liable to contaminate wildlife and people." A secret Monsanto report on the subject which has emerged in court said that, in response to the prospect of revelation, "'The alternatives are [to] say and do nothing; create a smokescreen; immediately discontinue the manufacture of Aroclors; respond responsibly, admitting growing evidence of environmental contamination ...' A scrawled note at the end of the document says: 'The Big Question! What do we tell our customers ... try to stay in business or help customer's clean up their use?'". Additionally, "Monsanto stopped producing PCBs in the US in 1971, but the UK government, which knew of the dangers of PCBs in the environment in the 1960s, allowed their production in Wales until 1977". However "complete cessation did not occur until 1986" [17] (Note: although Monsanto ceased production of liquid aroclor (PCBs) at its Anniston plant in 1971 and solid aroclor in 1972 it continued production at its Sauget, Ill. plant until 1977 for use in electrical systems such as capacitors and transformers [18]). "'This is one of the most contaminated sites in Wales and it is a priority to remediate because it is so close to habitations,' said John Harrison [Environment Agency Wales'] manager of the Taff/Ely region." [19]. Like Anniston in the U.S. Monsanto's Brofiscin is "the most contaminated place in Britain" [20].

The amount of PCBs dumped into two "unlined and unsealed" quarries, the Brofiscin Quarry and the Maendy Quarry, is more than 120,000 tonnes according to this article in The Ecologist. An additional five quarries were also used. Additionally the "Brofiscin stands above an underground reservoir that might well in the future be used as a public water supply."

"A previously unseen government report read by the Guardian shows that 67 chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs which could have been made only by Monsanto, are leaking from one unlined porous quarry that was not authorised to take chemical wastes" [21].

A major witness to the events, Douglas Gowan, who is questioning why the government Environment Agency is about to let Monsanto off the hook states that "I have been personally threatened, and my home invaded, necessitating police protection. All I have tried to do is to provide the evidence I have in the best public interest. Instead of that happening a seeming cover up is occurring, involving obstruction of justice, and the question begged is, why?" [22]. For background information see Burying The Truth.

But PCBs are now found everywhere and in everyone [23] and are virtually indestructible. They travel freely on wind and water and right on up the food chain (note: although "From 1929-1977 [when PCB manufacture was banned], Monsanto Company, [was] the sole manufacturer of PCBs in the United States, [and] produced 700,000 tons of PCBs" [24] they are not solely responsible for their worldwide distribution. Monsanto PCB customers like General Electric and Westinghouse also released massive amounts into the environment - a timeline [25]). Indeed in Our Stolen Future, Dr. Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski and John Peterson Myers note that PCBs "might be found virtually anywhere imaginable: in the sperm of a man tested at a fertility clinic in upstate New York, in the finest caviar, in the fat of a newborn baby in Michigan, in penguins in Antarctica, in the bluefin tuna served in a sushi bar in Tokyo, in the monsoon rains falling in Calcutta, in the milk of a nursing mother in France, in the blubber of a sperm whale cruising in the South Pacific, in a wheel of ripe brie cheese, in a handsome striped bass landed off Martha’s Vineyard on a summer weekend. Like most persistent synthetic chemicals, PCB’s are world travelers." (Page 91-92). For more including charts see IPCS - WHO Environmental Levels and Human Exposure. In fact along with other environmental threats like climate change (global warming) they may even lead to the extinction of polar bears [26] [27].

In humans they cause or are a precursor to a wide range of severe ailments including chloracne [28] (warning: a strong stomach is needed to click here). In fact "PCB exposure increases the risk of almost all major diseases, including heart disease and diabetes," says Carpenter. And although Monsanto publically downplays the toxicity of PCBs (though the record shows that privately Monsanto Knew about PCB Toxicity for Decades) "within the objective scientific community and within the government bodies, there is no debate at all'" [29]. See Mortality among workers exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) for a list of serious ailments related to capacitor manufacture using PCBs at an Indiana plant.

Alarm is being raised about the effects of PCBs and other Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) on native peoples in Russia, Greenland and Canada. Though normally boys slightly outnumber girls, evidence has been emerging that families that survive on the traditional indigenous diet of sea food are changing. It turns out that the hormone mimicking effects of these industrial pollutants are causing a radical suppression of male births. "In the north of Greenland, near the Thule American airbase, only girl babies are being born to Inuit families" [30].

Furthermore their ban was not the end of PCBs, "Due to the long service life of this equipment [electrical transformers], considerable amounts of PCBs are likely to remain in use for many years". For other continuing sources of exposure see section "History of PCBs" here. See PCBs for more details.

Monsanto's response is to claim that since it spun off a smaller affiliate, Solutia (in 1997), then merged with Pharmacia (in 2000) and then two years later sort of de-merged, it is not the same company that is responsible for Anniston [31].

Says the Farm Industry News, "Monsanto, which has long resided in the crosshairs of public scorn and scrutiny, appears to have dodged at least one bullet by spinning off its industrial chemical business into a separate entity called Solutia a couple of years ago. Solutia has since been hammered by lawsuits regarding PCB contamination from what were once called Monsanto chemical plants in Alabama and other states" [32].

"Solutia inherited Monsanto's liabilities as a result of 'one-sided negotiations' with Monsanto, according to a court document filed by Jeffrey Quinn, Solutia's general counsel and chief restructuring officer. Monsanto spun off its chemical business, naming it Solutia in 1997, when it decided to focus on its agricultural products. As part of the spinoff, Monsanto put all the liabilities both known and unknown that it had obtained for its nearly 100 years doing business into Solutia, which then became a publicly traded company" [33].

"Some cynically say the company got its name because it was the solution to many of old Monsanto's problems" [34], argues Solutia's Glenn Ruskin, "its spinoff from Monsanto Co. unjustly saddled it with hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs and other liabilities.... '(Monsanto) sort of cherry picked what they wanted and threw in all kinds of cats and dogs as part of a going-away present,' including $1 billion in debt and environmental and litigation costs accrued by Monsanto and Pharmacia over a century of manufacturing" [35]. In addition to PCBs the article mentions two Texas asbestos lawsuits inherited from Monsanto involving "about 570 asbestos actions involving 3,500 to 4,500 plaintiffs."

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