Fw: Toxic Secret - Montsanto - 60 Minutes

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Subject: Toxic Secret - Montsanto - 60 Minutes

> Toxic Secret - From 60 Minutes

>

> http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/07/60minutes/main528581.shtml

>

> (CBS) What makes residents of Anniston, Ala., even angrier than their

> exposure to a toxic chemical is that the company responsible never told

> them. Steve Kroft reports on America's most toxic town on 60 MINUTES

Sunday,

> Nov. 10, (7 p.m.ET/PT) on CBS.

>

> Some 20,000 current and former residents of Anniston are suing Monsanto,

the

> manufacturer of polychlorinated biphenyl's (PCBs), which were made in the

> town from 1929 to 1971.

>

> The chemical was banned in 1979, but PCBs can be still found in Anniston's

> air, water, soil, wildlife and in the residents themselves, many of whom

say

> it contributed to their illnesses, including cancer, heart disease and

> diabetes. Monsanto knew PCBs could be dangerous in 1938, when company

> documents reveal that rats exposed to the chemicals developed liver

damage.

>

> This irks resident , a former U.S. senator and the lawyer

> representing 3,500 residents in one of the lawsuits.

>

> The residents of Anniston, he explains, " are not the wealthiest people in

> the world, so they fish a lot..They consumed these fish that were filled

> with PCBs. (They) raised poultry,.hogs and at no point did the company

ever

> inform the people in the community about the problems they were facing. "

>

> Monsanto had been urging employees to wear protective gear when working

with

> the chemical since the 1950s, but never alerted the town. Residents found

> out in 1993, when a fisherman caught a badly deformed fish and sent it to

a

> lab for analysis.

>

> Besides the illnesses, Anniston is unique in another way, says resident

> Baker: " Our children have to play in the streets, on the sidewalks,

> because they can't play in the grass because it's contaminated. We have to

> wear masks if we cut our grass. Where else in the United States of America

> (are) people doing that? "

>

> Some parts of town are so badly contaminated that residents have been told

> not to grow vegetables, kick up dirt, eat or smoke in their yards.

>

> Monsanto sold off its chemical business in 1997, and the new company is

> called Solutia. Its CEO, Hunter, says the company is now trying to do

> the right thing.

>

> " Do I wish that things might have been done differently.than they were?

Sure

> I do, " he tells Kroft. " We're committed to cleaning up the PCBs. "

>

> Hunter says Solutia has spent more than $50 million on its cleanup and

that

> Anniston residents are no longer being exposed to " significant " levels of

> PCBs.

>

> " We've sampled 1,000 residential properties and only 24 of those are

> required for immediate action, " says Hunter.

>

> While Solutia tries to clean up the land, residents who can rattle off

their

> PCB levels like their ages remain contaminated.

>

> " There's absolute definitive evidence that (PCBs) cause cancer in

> animals.(and) evidence in humans consistent with the conclusion that they

> cause cancer, " says Dr. Carpenter, a professor of environmental

health

> and an expert on PCBs, who has studied Anniston.

>

> " In my judgment.this is the most contaminated site in the U.S., " he tells

> Kroft.

>