Monsanto, case study

The multinational, already has a very full record.

PCBs, Agent Orange, dioxin, GMOs, aspartame, growth hormones, herbicides (Roundup and Lasso) ... a lot of products that have made the fortune of Monsanto were marred by health scandals and lawsuits sometimes leading to their prohibition. But nothing has so far hindered the irresistible rise of this former chemical giant converted in biogenetics and has mastered the art of lobbying. This multinational is a persistent offender.

1) PCB: the trial of shame

In 2001, 3,600 residents of the town of Anniston, Alabama, attacked Monsanto for PCB contamination. According to a declassified report of the protection of the US Environmental Agency (EPA), Monsanto dumped for almost forty years thousands of tons of contaminated waste in streams and open dump in the heart of the city black area.

In 1975, a study conducted by Monsanto reveals that PCBs cause tumors in rats. The multinational decides to change the conclusions of "slightly tumorigenic 'to' does not appear carcinogenic". "We can not afford to lose a single dollar" and concludes one of the memos consulted by The Washington Post.

Monsanto was eventually convicted in 2002 of having polluted "the territory of Anniston and the blood of its population with PCBs". The firm will be ordered to pay $ 700 million in damages and ensure the cleaning of the city. In February 2007, The Guardian reveals that the agrochemical giant applied the same methods on multiple sites in Britain between 1965 and 1972. The newspaper has had access to a government report showing that 67 products, including Agent Orange, dioxin and PCBs, have been identified in a quarry in Wales. In France, the manufacture and use of PCBs are banned since 1987.

2) Agent Orange: convicted of "poisoning"

During these same years, between 1961 and 1971, Monsanto produced Agent Orange, made from the herbicide 2,4,5-T. It is massive defoliant dumped by US aircraft over Vietnamese forests during the war. The consequences are still felt today, with many cancers and birth defects in Vietnam, and the various sequelae in many US veterans.

In the 1970s, veterans Vietnam opens a Class Action against the producers of Agent Orange. Monsanto is found, alongside six other companies, main accused a repair on trial for poisoning. In 1987, the seven producers of Agent Orange were ordered to pay    $ 180 million to a compensation fund for American soldiers.

4) Is the Roundup toxic?

Remember this advertising and what good dog Rex "Roundup does not pollute soil or bone Rex". She earned Monsanto being sentenced twice, in the United States and France, for false statements placed on the packaging of this total herbicide.

In 1975, the company launched on the market Roundup, a powerful herbicide touted as "biodegradable" and "good for the environment." In 1996, the New York Attorney condemns Monsanto fined 50,000 dollars and withdrawal of false entries judged. In January 2007, the firm is convicted in France (from the trial) for the same reasons . Roundup is now the biggest selling herbicide in the world.

Several corroborating studies nevertheless claim that the lighthouse pesticide Monsanto - and its active ingredient, glyphosate - is potentially teratogenic, that is to say, responsible for fetal malformations. One of them, published in late 2010 in Chemical Research in Toxicology, shows that the direct exposure of amphibian embryos at very low doses of glyphosate herbicide causes malformations.

Monsanto rejects those conclusions: "Glyphosate has no harmful effects on reproduction in animals and adults does not cause malformations in the offspring of animals exposed to glyphosate, even at very high doses," said the firm on its website .

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