Guest guest Posted January 29, 2002 Report Share Posted January 29, 2002 --- Barbara Herskovitz <bherk@...> wrote: > > January 27, 2002 > > PCB Pollution Suits Have Day in Court in Alabama > By KEVIN SACK > NNISTON, Ala., Jan. 25 — These days, Edgar C. > Stroud grows his collard greens in five-gallon > buckets filled with soil bought from Wal- Mart. > He has done so ever since the man from the > Environmental Protection Agency tested the dirt in > his garden two years ago. > " `Do you eat stuff out of this garden?' " Mr. > Stroud said the man asked, somewhat ominously. > " Yes, " Mr. Stroud answered. > " `Well, I wouldn't,' " Mr. Stroud said the man > advised. > As is the case across west Anniston, Mr. Stroud's > garden is laced with high levels of polychlorinated > biphenyls, or PCB's, presumably from the plant three > blocks away where the Monsanto Company produced the > suspected carcinogen for nearly four decades. > During those years, St. Louis- based Monsanto > flushed tens of thousands of pounds of PCB's and > other toxic wastes into Snow Creek each year, > sending the chemicals meandering through > long-established neighborhoods and into Choccolocco > Creek. More than 45 tons of PCB's, a highly > efficient industrial insulator, were discharged in > 1969 alone, according to company documents. Monsanto > also deposited millions of pounds of PCB's in a > hillside landfill just above the plant. > Thirty miles away, in Gadsden, Ala., a jury is > hearing a lawsuit filed by Mr. Stroud and more than > 3,500 other plaintiffs who contend that Monsanto and > its chemical division, Solutia Inc., should > compensate them for reduced property values, > emotional distress and, in some cases, health > problems related to the PCB contamination. > It is one of at least four major Anniston-related > lawsuits against Monsanto and Solutia that have been > filed by a total of 25,000 plaintiffs. Two of the > cases have already been settled, for a combined $80 > million. > Because of the difficulty of seating an unbiased > jury in Anniston, Judge Laird Jr. of state > Circuit Court moved the trial to Gadsden. > In the first two weeks of testimony, the plaintiffs' > lawyers have established through Monsanto > memorandums that the company was aware of the level > of its discharges and that it at least partly > understood the risks as early as the mid-1960's, if > not earlier. But it did not begin improving > pollution controls until 1970, a year before it > stopped making PCB's in Anniston. The company > continued to produce PCB's elsewhere until 1977, two > years before the federal government banned them. > A witness for the plaintiffs testified on Thursday > that PCB levels in the blood of many plaintiffs was > elevated. The 16 plaintiffs in the first phase of > the trial had average PCB levels of 46 parts per > billion, 27 times the national norm, said Dr. Ian > Nisbet, a Massachusetts toxicologist and a > consultant for the plaintiffs. > " This is by far the most contaminated community — > as indicated by the levels in their blood — that > I've ever encountered, " Dr. Nisbet said. > Because science remains murky on the health effects > of PCB's on humans, those plaintiffs who maintain > they have been personally injured by Monsanto may > have difficulty proving their cases. But Anniston is > rife with anecdotes about high and persistent cancer > rates, particularly about children who developed > tumors after frolicking in and around Snow Creek. > B. Baker, the president of Community Against > Pollution, a local health and environmental group, > said that his brother died at 17 of brain and lung > cancer after growing up near the Monsanto plant. > " It seems like everybody in these neighborhoods has > cancer, " said Mr. Baker, while driving through > streets where contaminated houses have been bought > and leveled by Monsanto and replaced by chain-link > fences bearing " Danger " signs. > The trial, he said, has given the community hope. > To illustrate the health risks of PCB's, lawyers for > the plaintiffs have relied on Monsanto's own > memorandums, many of them marked " Confidential — > Read and Destroy. " > A 1966 letter by a Mississippi State University > scientist who was hired by the company to test creek > water disclosed that 25 fish, when submerged in Snow > Creek, " lost equilibrium and turned on their sides > in 10 seconds and all were dead in three and a half > minutes. " > A 1970 report revealed that a blacktail shiner > caught in Choccolocco Creek was found to have 37,000 > parts per million of PCB's in its fat, making it > " the most contaminated fish I've ever heard of in > the wild, " Dr. Nisbet said. > Lawyers for Monsanto and Solutia said they could not > discuss the case because of an order imposed by > Judge Laird. But in the past, they have maintained > that the companies acted fairly in dealing with the > city, that they spent more than $40 million on > environmental testing and cleanup and that PCB > contamination cannot be definitively linked to > long-term health problems. > " We would all rather live in a pristine world, " said > Jere White, a lawyer for Monsanto and Solutia, in > his opening argument two weeks ago. " We are all > going to be exposed to things on a daily basis. Our > bodies can deal with it. " > For decades, many in Anniston had no idea that their > neighborhoods were polluted or that their health > could be at risk. But now, thanks to the lawsuits, > the intervention of the federal government and the > work of community groups, this city of almost 25,000 > people seems to be defined by its environmental > burdens. > In addition to the PCB problem, there are new > concerns about mercury releases from the Monsanto > plant and the Army's plans to incinerate toxic gases > at its depot here. > " We're infamous, " Mayor Hoyt W. Howell Jr. said. > " The accumulation of the issues of the past have all > come to a head at one time, and that's hard to > handle. " > Mr. Howell said it was hard to pinpoint the effect > of Anniston's environmental problems on economic > development efforts, but said it was clearly one > factor that has stymied the city. " We're between > Atlanta and Birmingham on I-20, " he noted, " and the > prosperity of the 1990's was barely felt here. " > __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 13, 2002 Report Share Posted April 13, 2002 Nan.... > Please take me off your e mail. Thanks. Good luck to all. > Can e still get monthly newsletter? You have to go to groups and take yourself off, sadly. We can't do it. Go to: / Or you can send an email to: -unsubscribe And write unsubscribe in the body of the mail. We'll miss you, hope everything's okay with you. Sue PS--I don't know about the newsletter. -- " She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot. " -- Mark Twain Rich and Sue Owens http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Meadows/7457/index3.html http://www.nothnbut.net/~reo77/aurora.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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