Reply #22: More on enviromental damage and a very long running cover-up

[Jose Diablo]

http://www.planetwaves.net/silence2.html

"Scientific knowledge about the dangers of PCBs has advanced along two tracks, one private and one public. The secret studies began in 1936 when many workers at the Halowax Corporation in New York City exposed to PCBs (then called chlorinated diphenyls) and related chemicals called chlorinated napthalenes started coming down with chloracne, a painful, disfiguring skin disease. Three workers died. Autopsies of two revealed severe liver damage. Halowax asked Harvard University researcher Cecil K. Drinker to investigate.

Drinker presented his results at a 1937 meeting at Harvard attended by Monsanto, GE, Halowax, the U.S. Public Health Service, and state health officials from Massachusetts and Connecticut. Like the Halowax workers, Drinker's test rats had suffered severe liver damage. "These experiments leave no doubt as to the possibility of systemic effects from the chlorinated napthalenes and chlorinated diphenyls," he concluded."

...snip...

"Meanwhile, the damning evidence continued to spill out of corporate laboratories. A 1938 study of PCB-oil mixtures manufactured by Westinghouse and GE demonstrated that liver damage could be caused by skin contact alone, and called for the "greatest personal hygiene" in minimizing exposure. In further research for Monsanto, Drinker warned that adequate ventilation was necessary when handling the chemicals. By 1951, Monsanto also had in its files a 1947 scientific finding that there was "need to give warning" about PCBs because "the toxicity of those compounds has been repeatedly demonstrated."

...snip...

And finally this:

""Monsanto's actions involving PCBs have always been responsible," spokesperson Diane Herndon wrote in a 1993 statement. According to GE's Jack Batty, "Public perception about the health risks of PCBs and the scientific facts are in conflict. Most scientists agree that PCBs are not the hazard to human health that was feared in the 1970s." "PCBs have produced tumors in some laboratory animals, but there is no proof - based on human exposure of more than 40 years - that PCBs cause cancer or any other serious health problems in people." Substitute "cigarettes" for "PCBs," and it could be the tobacco industry talking."

Monsanto has attempted to confuse knowledge of the dangers of PCB's.

Now they say , 'trust us on this genetic food'.

I would say Monsanto has gone far, far beyond merely being ignorant of the hazards of the products they produce. IMO they have crossed-over into the criminal.

Edit for spelling