By Aviva Shen on Oct 5, 2012 at 10:47 am
A new lawsuit over harmful levels of the
coolant polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) in Massachusetts school buildings is
forcing biotech firm Monsanto Company to revisit its unsavory past. Before
Monsanto became the agricultural giant it is today, the company’s major product
used to be PCBs, which it routinely dumped in rivers and open pits while deliberately
attempting to hide the damage. The company managed to survive the many lawsuits
from poisoned communities and distance itself from its toxic past — largely
thanks to the help of Mitt Romney.
But now the town of Lexington is
trying to hold the company accountable for the PCBs used in school construction
between 1950 and 1976, when PCBs were banned by Congress. The lawsuit, which
seeks to represent all Massachusetts schools, claims Monsanto should have
warned manufacturers of the health and environmental dangers posed by exposure
to PCBs. The chemical has been definitively linked to
cancer and serious neurological and hormonal disorders.
Monsanto’s corporate affairs director
fired back that the company is not responsible for the outdated building: “It
is our understanding that the school in question was built over 50 years ago,
was poorly maintained, and was scheduled for demolition years ago since it had
outlived its useful life.”
Many of the schools in Massachusetts
have also “outlived” themselves, partly due to the same man who helped Monsanto
outlive its disastrous PCB scandal. As governor, Romney slashedstate
funds for local aid in 2003 and 2004, forcing towns to cut corners and enact
freezes on education spending. As almost half of all municipal revenue goes
toward education, Romney’s austerity budgets dealt a serious blow to local
schools.
Later, Romney took credit for then
Treasurer Tim Cahill’s plan to refinance school building assistance, which was
meant to clear the more than 400 pending school construction projects in the
state. Soon after the refinancing plan was passed, however, Romney froze state contributions to
local school construction projects, leaving cities and towns to scramble for
funds and suspend some of their backlogged projects.
Lexington’s lawsuit states that more
than half of the state’s 1,900 schools were built between 1950 and the 1970s,
making them likely to contain harmfully elevated levels of PCBs.
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