Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
April 14th, 2008Must read… If you like the Horror genre.
Via: Vanity Fair:
Today, 37 years after PCB production ceased in Anniston, and after tons of contaminated soil have been removed to try to reclaim the site, the area around the old Monsanto plant remains one of the most polluted spots in the U.S.
People in Anniston find themselves in this fix today largely because of the way Monsanto disposed of PCB waste for decades. Excess PCBs were dumped in a nearby open-pit landfill or allowed to flow off the property with storm water. Some waste was poured directly into Snow Creek, which runs alongside the plant and empties into a larger stream, Choccolocco Creek. PCBs also turned up in private lawns after the company invited Anniston residents to use soil from the plant for their lawns, according to The Anniston Star.
So for decades the people of Anniston breathed air, planted gardens, drank from wells, fished in rivers, and swam in creeks contaminated with PCBs—without knowing anything about the danger. It wasn’t until the 1990s—20 years after Monsanto stopped making PCBs in Anniston—that widespread public awareness of the problem there took hold.
Studies by health authorities consistently found elevated levels of PCBs in houses, yards, streams, fields, fish, and other wildlife—and in people. In 2003, Monsanto and Solutia entered into a consent decree with the E.P.A. to clean up Anniston. Scores of houses and small businesses were to be razed, tons of contaminated soil dug up and carted off, and streambeds scooped of toxic residue. The cleanup is under way, and it will take years, but some doubt it will ever be completed—the job is massive. To settle residents’ claims, Monsanto has also paid $550 million to 21,000 Anniston residents exposed to PCBs, but many of them continue to live with PCBs in their bodies. Once PCB is absorbed into human tissue, there it forever remains.
A tidbit: $550 million to 21,000 Anniston residents = (average of) $26,190 per resident. Not a hell of a lot for the victims, and something Monsanto can deduct from its taxes.
more perspective-enhancing info:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/business/04monsanto.html
“In its first quarter, which ended Nov. 30, Monsanto earned $256 million, or 46 cents a share, compared with $90 million, or 16 cents a share, a year ago.”
In case that’s unclear, that’s $256 million in profit, not revenue. For 1 quarter.
I am no expert, but from what I have read, there is one way that PCB’s can be released through the body: it travels through breast milk. I lived in Michigan during the contamination there in the ’70’s. Knowing nothing of the danger, I later nursed my son for two years, hoping to create a healthy child. He developed a slow-growing tumor in his spine that was surgically removed after it was discovered when he was a teenager, just before it would have crippled or killed him.
Of course, I have no proof that PCB caused his tumor, but the suspicion has provided me with unending pain these many years. I also note that the Beluga whales living off the end of the St. Lawrence Seaway, where the effluent from the Great Lakes flows, also suffer from these tumors in their spines.
Awhile back I was looking for an organic product to use to provide trace minerals for garden soil. I was trying to find something available locally, and someone at Wal-Mart directed me to a product called Ironite. It looked like it had what I needed, but I told the clerk that I wanted to research it–to find out if it was a good organic soil amendment–before buying.
Turns out the stuff is mine tailings and contains high levels of arsenic and lead. There is at least one lawsuit by ELF (Environmental Law Foundation).
The allegations of the complaint are as follows: The Arizona-based Ironite Products Company’s signature product, “Ironite,” is made from mine tailings from a proposed Superfund site in Humboldt, Arizona. Ironite contains high levels of lead and arsenic – heavy metals that are known to cause cancer and reproductive harm. The arsenic and lead levels in Ironite exceed California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) regulations, and labels on Ironite omit information about the contents of heavy metals as required by California law. Ironite is promoted by its manufacturer as “environmentally safe” and recommended for use on vegetables, flowers, lawns, potted plants, shrubs and trees.
Be careful what you choose to fertilize lawns and gardens.
freeacre: That is an awful thing to happen to someone. I have no doubt the PCBs caused your son’s cancer.
One of the problems I have with the preoccupation with Global Warming, besides the fact that its the cause celebre of globalists, is that it diverts attention from what I think is a far greater environmental problem, and one that we know the exact cause of – the systemic inundation of the environment with known carcinogens. We have a constantly growing cancer epidemic, yet you never hear much about it these days, and certainly not from the Al Gores of this country…
I agree with tm about the globalist focus on global warming as a distraction and I would add that it also detracts significantly from the issue of genetically modified seeds – a most alarming set of possibilities for the future that I’d rather rather never see become a reality.
A related video (haven’t watched it yet – still no sound):
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/05/01/this-company-may-be-the-biggest-threat-to-your-future-health.aspx