Source: AFP
A US court on Monday ordered chemical company Monsanto to pay $857 million to seven people at a school in western Washington state who said they were sickened by chemical leaks from lighting fixtures.
The decision is the latest legal setback for Monsanto, which is already struggling with hefty legal bills after losing court cases over its glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup.
The jury said the company, owned by German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, had sold parts containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that the group of students and parent volunteers at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington, claimed made them sick. .
He ordered the company to pay a total of $73 million in restitution and $784 million in punitive damages to the plaintiffs in the case.
Attorney Felix Luna, representing the plaintiffs, told the jury Monsanto had engaged in years of undermining to cover up what it knew about the harmful effects of PCBs.
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“Monsanto … never warned anyone that (PCBs) would last longer than they were put in,” Luna said in his closing argument, according to a transcript of the case.
“They never warned anyone that when they enter the body that they are lifelong metabolites, that they are neurotoxic … a danger or (that) PCBs could lead to systemic poisoning.”
The court found the company negligent and ordered various amounts of damages to the seven plaintiffs, with each also receiving $112 million in damages.
A Monsanto spokesman said the company would appeal the decision.
“We disagree with the verdict and will pursue post-trial motions and appeals to vacate this verdict and reduce the constitutionally excessive damages awarded,” a statement said.
“The objective evidence in this case, including blood, air and other tests, demonstrates that the plaintiffs were not exposed to unsafe levels of PCBs and PCBs could not have caused their alleged injuries.”
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Polychlorinated biphenyls are man-made chemicals that were primarily used as coolants and lubricants.
People exposed to them can experience respiratory irritation, and scientists say the chemicals may contribute to some cancers.
In previous decades, PCB-based flame retardant fluid was used in the ballasts that provide the energy surge to activate fluorescent lamps.
Monsanto says it stopped using the chemical in chokes in 1977, two years before the US federal government banned their production because of the evidence it accumulates in the environment, including fish and meat used for human consumption.
A company source said the school district responsible for the light fixtures at Sky Valley Education Center had been warned for several decades that the light fixtures at the school needed updating to bring them into line with federal and state rules.
German conglomerate Bayer — the maker of aspirin — bought Monsanto in 2018, a blockbuster $63 billion deal that quickly fell apart.
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Bayer inherited Monsanto’s legal woes over Roundup and has since faced a wave of lawsuits in the United States over claims it causes cancer — a charge Bayer disputes.
Of the 160,000 lawsuits brought against the group over the herbicide, 113,000 had been settled or dismissed, according to Bayer, which set aside $16 billion to cover the legal risk.
Source: AFP