Monsanto will pay Washington $95 million in PCB pollution lawsuit

Monsanto will pay the state of Washington $95 million to resolve a lawsuit by Attorney General Bob Ferguson, over the chemical giant's manufacturing and marketing of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pollution of waterways.

The settlement is a big win for the AG's office. It marks Washington's largest independent recovery of money in an environmental lawsuit against a single entity.

"Monsanto knew the dangers of PCBs, but hid them from the public to protect their profits," Ferguson said in a statement. "Washington has been shouldering the health and environmental costs of PCB contamination and cleanup for decades,"

Monsanto was the only American firm to produce PCBs from 1935 until the substance was banned in 1977. The Environmental Protection Agency has classified PCBs as probable human carcinogens, with exposure that is associated with cancer as well as adverse impacts on human immune, reproductive, and nervous systems.

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