Monsanto ordered to pay 857 million dollars in damages for PCB chemical
The plaintiffs are former students of the Sky Valley Education Center and parents who volunteered at the school in the city of Monroe. They attribute illnesses to the chemical PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls), which is said to have leaked from fluorescent lamps at the school.
PCBs were previously used in fluorescent lamp capacitors as cooling and insulating fluids. The chemical can cause respiratory problems and possibly contribute to cancer.
Plaintiff attorney Felix Luna said during the trial that Monsanto never adequately warned about the dangers of PCBs and concealed the harmful effects. The jury found that the chemical company had acted negligently.
Following the jury's verdict, a Monsanto spokesperson announced an appeal against the verdict. "We do not agree with the verdict." Among other things, blood and air tests had shown that the plaintiffs had not been exposed to increased levels of PCBs. That is why the company is seeking to have the verdict overturned, the spokesperson explained.
Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 for 63 billion dollars. Since then, the German chemical giant has been struggling in particular with lawsuits and trials over the Monsanto weedkiller Roundup. This contains the chemical glyphosate, which is suspected of having a carcinogenic effect.
There have been tens of thousands of lawsuits in the USA due to cancer allegedly caused by glyphosate. Bayer was partly acquitted and partly ordered to pay damages or paid as part of settlements. Around 113,000 of the 160,000 lawsuits filed have been concluded to date. The Group has recognized provisions amounting to 16 billion US dollars.
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Source: www.stern.de
