Monsanto Mulled PCB "Smokescreen"

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The United Kingdom's Environment Agency has opened an investigation into toxic groundwater contamination in south Wales after examining evidence that Monsanto knowingly contracted to dump thousands of tons of waste in British landfill sites. In 1968, a Monsanto committee secretly considered disposal options for Aroclor, a trade name for cancer-causing PCBs, and wrote: "[I]t will be impossible to deny the presence and persistence of Aroclors. ... The alternatives are [to] say and do nothing; create a smokescreen; immediately discontinue the manufacture of Aroclors; respond responsibly, admitting growing evidence of environmental contamination." The Guardian reports that Monsanto's detailed planning has publicly emerged only decades after the dumping due to a U.S. lawsuit. The company issued a defensive response, stating that the then-parent company, Pharmacia, informed contractors about the cancer-causing PCBs and "did not dump wastes from its own vehicles." The British government is also under attack for failing to release to the public its own information about the chemical releases. One quarry has been leaking PCBs and other chemicals for years.