Monsanto Hit With $550M Settlement

The debate over whether biotechnology can improve food security has been brought to the forefront by Monsanto. Midway through the 1980s, the corporation launched its push to become a global leader in “life sciences,” which includes food components, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural goods. Since 1996, the company has spent over US$8 billion purchasing seeds and agricultural biotechnology firms.

The company’s development of herbicides has raised the greatest alarm in recent times. Internal documents reveal that the business was aware that the dioxin exposure that sickened its herbicide-making employees was covered up. Additionally, it concealed its ties to the US military, which had shown an interest in using herbicides for military purposes.

In many legal proceedings, Monsanto was to be charged with polluting employees and the general public with dioxin and fabricating data to hide the dioxin contamination of a variety of goods. Monsanto didn’t tell the government about contamination, changed the information to make it look like there wasn’t any contamination, or sent samples to the government for testing that were made to show there was no dioxin contamination.

PCBs are synthetic substances. They’re clear to yellow, greasy, odourless, and tasteless. Chemically, PCBs are very persistent mixtures that can withstand high heat and pressure without degrading. Electrical devices like capacitors and transformers often utilise PCBs. Mostly under the trade name Aroclor, Monsanto Inc. was the leading manufacturer of PCBs in the United States.

Several cities have sued Monsanto, claiming that the company’s legacy PCB products polluted rivers, which in turn tainted their drinking water. The lawsuit alleges that

• The design of PCBs and items using PCBs made by Monsanto was defective.
• The risks of PCBs and things that contain PCBs hurting the environment are much greater than the benefits of using them.
• As a result of PCB contamination, the plaintiffs and the settlement class members experienced property demages.

Even though Monsanto didn’t admit to any wrongdoing, it agreed to pay $550 million to settle the claims made in this class action lawsuit.

As of June 24, 2020, the settlement will benefit NPDES Phase I and II cities, towns, villages, boroughs, townships, and independent port districts located within a HUC 12 watershed that is adjacent to a 303(d) water body that has been impacted by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).