Anna K
OBHR 33000
February 25, 2013

There’s Evil, and then there’s Monsanto In many ways, Monsanto is just like every other business; it engages in the trade or sale of products and services to a consumer. This, for the most part, is where Monsanto ends being like a business. Monsanto is a company that specializes in production of agricultural/vegetable seeds, plant biotechnology and crop protection chemicals (Devil in Disguise; the Unethical Practices of Monsanto, 2012). It is considered “The world's poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit” (Smith, 2010). Those are some pretty big boots to fill. I will be examining just one of the terrifying scenarios where Monsanto has displayed deceptive and dangerous ethics. Back in 1929, in a little town in Alabama called Anniston, Monsanto engineered a type of chemical called polychlorinated biphenyl, PCBs for short. They would end up being one of the most prevalent and lucrative engineering substances of 20th century America. They were used as insulators in electric transformers, and included in everything from lacquers to printed goods. Although Monsanto was in the know about the burying of the chemicals in and around the town, the residents lived there for decades without knowledge. In 1979 they were outlawed because of the detrimental effects on the environment. Monsanto discarded tons of raw PCBs directly into Snow Creek which runs along the plant. 5,000 extra tons are buried in a hillside and Baker thinks that it is still giving off harmful vapors (Crean, 2009). The dangerous and deadly effect that humans and other animal must live with forever is higher PCB levels in the blood. The norm is 1.5 parts per billion; some of the 20,000 residents have two or three times that amount. “‘At no point in time did the company ever inform the people in that community about the problems they were facing," says Stewart. "My suspicion is that they knew that one day we would be in the situation we're in right now. The internal documents indicate that they knew they had tremendous liability there at that plant site.’” (Crean, 2009). The documents that Stewart is referring to are millions of documents that claimed they knew that PCBs were harmful to humans and animals as early as 1938. They discovered this when rats that were exposed to the chemicals for a period of time had severe liver damage when autopsied. These documents from the 50’s that we marked “CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy”, explained that the employees who were to be handling these nasty chemicals should wear protective clothing and respirators. All of this might have gone undiscovered if it weren’t for a local fisherman back in 1993 that caught a severely disfigured largemouth bass in Choccolocco Creek and sent it off to be analyzed at a lab. The findings were highly disturbing; the fish had abnormally high levels of PCBs running through its’ system. The truth is that water ways as far as 40 miles away were contaminated and everything living in the water was toxic. As far back as 1966, a few scientists dunked fish into the local bodies of water near the plant and in as few as 10 seconds, the fish were “spurting blood and shedding skin as if dunked into boiling water” (Grunwald, 2002). They told no one. A couple years later in 1969 they found a fish in a nearby creek with 7,500 times the legal PCB levels. Then another couple years later in 1975, some other scientists discovered that heightened levels of PCBs caused tumors in rats; this prompted them to “ordered its conclusion changed from ‘slightly tumorigenic’ to ‘does not appear to be carcinogenic’" (Grunwald, 2002). “Other studies on health effects associated with PCB exposure indicate neurotoxicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, immune system suppression, liver damage, skin irritation, and endocrine disruption (Cogliano 1998; Browner testimony 1998; U.S. EPA 1996; Rice 1995)” (MONSANTO KNEW ABOUT PCB TOXICITY FOR DECADES, 2009). In 1960, a letter was written to a customer of Monsanto’s explaining certain outcomes of their product mixing with natural waterways, “‘As you know, the Pydraul fluids are insoluble in water as well as heavier than water. Unless these materials are strongly emulsified they will sink to the bottom of any receiving stream and as such will not give rise to the typical picture of oil pollution. If the material is discharged in large concentrations it will adversely effect the organisms in the bottom of the receiving stream which will effect the aquatic life in the stream. We have had no experience with any regulatory agency concerning the discharge of these materials. I would imagine that these agencies would frown on the discharge of large quantities of any type hydraulic fluid. Based on the toxicity studies of these fluids with laboratory animals I would not expect them to be very toxic to aquatic life. On the other hand, this is a surmise on my part since we have no tests on aquatic animals’ [Monsanto to PA customer; August 29, 1960]” (MONSANTO RESPONDS TO PCBs IN WILDLIFE, 2009). Then 6 years later 1966, they testified that it was the “truth” that they hadn’t discovered that PCBs were in the environment and that they would try to act responsibly. Clearly we have uncovered just a small instance of the deception that Monsanto is responsible for. Being a large corporation, they should have to answer to the people and their needs; not the other way around. They have gone so far as to pay out several millions of dollars in settlement funds to the families of Anniston and several more millions to clean up efforts. This miniscule pay off won’t take back pain, the disease and the deception of Monsanto.

Work Cited

Crean, E. (2009, February 11). Toxic Secret. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from CBSNews.com: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-528581.html
Grunwald, M. (2002, January 1). Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from Commondreams.org: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0101-02.htm
Smith, J. M. (2010, July 30). Monsanto: The world's poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from NaturalNews.com: http://www.naturalnews.com/029325_Monsanto_deception.html
Unknown. (2012, November 28). Devil in Disguise; the Unethical Practices of Monsanto. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from ENT Journal: http://entjournal.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/devil-in-disguise-the-unethical-practices-of-monsanto/
Unknown. (2009, March 27). MONSANTO KNEW ABOUT PCB TOXICITY FOR DECADES. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from Chemical Industry Archives: http://www.chemicalindustryarchives.org/dirtysecrets/annistonindepth/toxicity.asp