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Seattle Joins Other US Cities To Sue Monsanto For PCB Contamination

The city of Seattle is to join five other major US cities that are suing Monsanto over PCB contamination. Seattle is suing to make Monsanto pay for the cleanup of toxic PCBs from the city’s drainage system and the Duwamish River. The cities of Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego and Spokane are also filing suits against the agricultural biotech giant. Natural Society reports: Though most of us know Monsanto for creating the best-selling herbicide Round Up and contributing to the creation of Agent Orange, in this case, PCB contamination is targeted in 20,000 acres that drain to the Lower Duwamish, a federal Superfund site in Seattle, Washington. Monsanto was a producer of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) for commercial use in the U.S. from 1935 to 1977. The company has made millions from selling PCBs, all the while knowing that natural environments were suffering, causing harm to people, wildlife, and pets. A majority of the people who worked for Monsanto in their PCB-making ‘glory days’ had little clue what the chemicals were doing to them. Most never thought to connect Monsanto to some of the odder features of life in places such as Anniston, Alabama – where the creek (known locally as “the ditch”) [...]