Corn field. (photo: Darren Hauck/Reuters)
Monsanto
Ordered to Pay $46.5 Million in PCB Lawsuit in Rare Win for Plaintiffs
By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
26 May 16
St.
Louis jury has awarded three plaintiffs a total of $46.5 million in damages in
a lawsuit alleging that Monsanto and three other companies were negligent in
its handling of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a highly toxic and
carcinogenic group of chemicals.
Yesterday’s 10-2
verdict in St. Louis Circuit Court awarded $17.5 million in damages
to the three plaintiffs and assessed an additional $29 million in punitive
damages against Monsanto, Solutia, Pharmacia and Pfizer, the St. Louis Dispatch reported.
PCBs were
used to insulate electronics decades ago. Before switching
operations to agriculture, Monsanto was the sole manufacturer of the
compound from 1935 until 1977. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) banned PCBs in
1979, due to its link to birth defects and cancer in laboratory
animals. PCBs can also have adverse skin and liver effects in
humans. PCBs linger in the environment for many decades.
The
lawsuit claims that Monsanto continued to sell the compounds even after it
learned about its dangers and falsely told the public they were safe. Indeed,
internal documents have surfaced showing that Monsanto knew about the health
risks of PCBs long before they were banned. A document, dated Sept. 20,
1955, stated: “We know Aroclors [PCBs] are toxic but the actual limit has
not been precisely defined.”
The
verdict is the first such victory in the city of St. Louis and a seemingly rare
win overall. Monsanto has historically prevailed in similar lawsuits filed
against the company over deaths and illnesses related to PCBs, as MintPress News noted.
“This
is the future,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Steven Kherkher of Houston
told EcoWatch.
“The
only reason why this victory is rare is because no one has had the
money to fight Monsanto,” explaining that his law firm, Williams Kherkher, and
other law firms pooled their resources to get the case off the ground.
“It’s
not going to be rare anymore,” he said as his law firm has accumulated
about 1,000 plaintiffs surrounding PCBs.
As
more cases mount against the company, Kherkher said, “every judge allows us to
acquire more and more information from Monsanto and discover their documents.
There is a lot more information out there that has yet to be mined.”
Monsanto
has issued a statement following the verdict, saying they are planning to
appeal:
We have deep sympathy for the plaintiffs but we are disappointed
by the jury’s decision and plan to immediately appeal today’s ruling. Previous
juries in four straight similar trials rejected similar claims by attorneys
that those plaintiffs contracted non-Hodgkin lymphoma as a result of eating
food containing PCBs. The evidence simply does not support today’s verdict,
including the fact that scientists say more than 90 percent of non-Hodgkin
lymphoma cases have no known cause.
Kherkher
represented three families from Oklahoma, Michigan and Alaska in the personal
injury lawsuit saying PCBs caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“The
man from Oklahoma died at the age of 58 and had no health problems at all,”
Kherkher said. “He wasn’t a smoker or a drinker and he exercised, but his body
was filled with Monsanto’s PCBs. He grew up in Michigan and Monsanto polluted
the waters of Michigan and he suffered and died.”
“A lot
people just don’t know that the Monsanto’s PCBs are in the orange juice you
drank this morning and the pizza you’ll eat tonight. The air that you’re
breathing has PCBs in it,” Kherkher said. “Monsanto has discounted it,
saying it’s only parts per billion or parts per trillion, but it adds up.”
He
also disputes Monsanto’s claim that most non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases
have no known cause, citing a 2013 decision from the
International Agency for Research on Cancer classifying PCBs as
carcinogenic to humans. The agency found limited evidence from some studies
suggesting that exposure is linked to increased risks of non-Hodgkin lymphoma
and breast cancer.
Juror
Nathan Nevius told the St. Louis Dispatch after the ruling, “All of us
could pretty much agree that Monsanto was negligent.”
St.
Louis jury orders Monsanto to pay $46.5 million in latest PCB lawsuit http://bit.ly/1OY7obD
Another
juror, Ashley Enochs said, “I think it goes to show that large companies can
put stuff out there that’s harmful and they can do it for along time but that
justice is going to be served whether it’s a year after the products are put
out, or in this case, 80 years.”
As far
as the environmental footprint of PCBs, ThinkProgress explained
that the sheer number of lawsuits that have surfaced across the country in the
last three decades against Monsanto over the chemical proves how difficult
it is to hold a polluter accountable.
Still,
a growing number of West Coast cities have slammed lawsuits against
the St. Louis-based corporation for cleanup costs of the
compound. On May 19, the city of Long Beach in California became the
eighth city to sue the biotech giant, joiningPortland, Seattle, Spokane, Berkeley, San Diego, San Jose and Oakland. These cases are pending.
According
to Courthouse News Service,
Long Beach says in its federal lawsuit that Monsanto knew for decades that PCBs
are “widely contaminating all natural resources and living organisms” including
marine life, plants, animals, birds and humans.”
The
complaint further states: “PCBs regularly leach, leak, off-gas, and escape
their intended applications, causing runoff during naturally occurring storm
and rain events, after being released into the environment. The runoff
originates from multiple sources and industries and enters Long Beach Waters
with stormwater and other runoff.”
Long
Beach says it has “incurred substantial costs” cleaning up the chemicals and is
seeking compensatory and punitive damages for public nuisance and costs of
suit.
Long
Beach latest city to sue Monsanto over PCB contamination: https://lbpost.com/news/2000008851-long-beach-sues-pcbs-producing-company-for-contaminating-storm-water-and-port …
In response, Scott Partridge, Monsanto’s vice president of global
strategy, said that the city’s lawsuit was “instigated by trial lawyers who
have been aggressively shopping their services to local government officials,”
Courthouse News Service reported.
“The
speculative legal theories being advanced have no basis in the law, and should
ultimately be rejected by the courts in California,” he continued. “The facts
are clear: There’s no evidence that Monsanto discharged a single PCB molecule
into the waters of Long Beach, as Monsanto never had a PCB manufacturing
facility in Long Beach or anywhere else in California. Any PCBs that may exist
were introduced by unidentified third parties or by the city itself.
“Monsanto
takes seriously its own environmental responsibilities. But in this case, there
is no valid claim against Monsanto. If the city wants to deal with these PCBs,
it should seek out those who allowed PCBs into the Long Beach water.”
Monsanto company
could gain further legal protection after Congressional Republicans snuck in
the so-called “Monsanto Rider” in the Toxic Substances Control Act reauthorization
bill that will give the chemical giant permanent immunity from liability
for injuries caused by PCBs, the New York Times reported in February.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
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