Monsanto has done something incredible, unbelievable, amazing: they’ve made the tobacco companies look good. Well, at least look not particularly or unusually Evil.
[F]or nearly 40 years, while producing the now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs at a local factory, Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills. And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents — many emblazoned with warnings such as “CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy” — show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew.
In 1966, Monsanto managers discovered that fish submerged in that creek turned belly-up within 10 seconds, spurting blood and shedding skin as if dunked into boiling water. They told no one. In 1969, they found fish in another creek with 7,500 times the legal PCB levels. They decided “there is little object in going to expensive extremes in limiting discharges.” In 1975, a company study found that PCBs caused tumors in rats. They ordered its conclusion changed from “slightly tumorigenic” to “does not appear to be carcinogenic.”
And that’s just the tip of the ice berg from this (not metaphorically) damning story.
To all of you out there who think it’s all a matter of dollars and cents what your company does, bear in mind that even the Bush Administration just ordered GE to pay $460 billion (that’s with a “b”) dredging up PCB contaminants from the Hudson River. Your short-term profit will be fittered away by the long-term liability, clean-ups, and law suits, and your stockholders will not be happy. You might even find yourself being personally sued. Or worse.
To all of you out there who think, “Nobody will ever know,” don’t count on it. This sort of stuff does eventually come out. It can’t be hidden forever. And when it does, your company, your legacy, and you will be tarnished for just as long. How would you like your child, or your grandchild, to hand you this article and ask you if you knew about it? How about your father? Your mother? Your spouse?
(And even if it could be hidden forever, I’m fortunate enough to be of a religious faith that says it will come out, at the Least Opportune Moment, with Dire Consequences.)
To all of you out there (including my President) who think, “Industries know it is in their interest to be good neighbors. Self-regulation is the way to go,” I suggest you move, post haste, to Anniston, Alabama.
Robert Kaley, the environmental affairs director for Solutia [nee Monsanto] who also serves as the PCB expert for the American Chemistry Council, said it is unfair to judge the company’s behavior from the 1930s through 1970s by modern standards.
Leaving aside the odd assertion that the 1970s is not “modern,” no, it’s not unfair. Certainly not unfair if you’re not doing everything in your power to make good on what your company did then (as opposed to stonewalling investigations and refusing to even apologize).
“Did we do some things we wouldn’t do today? Of course. But that’s a little piece of a big story,” he said. “If you put it all in context, I think we’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”
Yes. Yes, you do.
(Via