A couple of paragraphs that stood out to me from this article: "But Monsanto's uncertain legacy is as embedded in west Anniston's psyche as it is in the town's dirt. The EPA and the World Health Organization classify PCBs as "probable carcinogens," and while no one has determined whether the people in Anniston are sicker than average, Solutia has opposed proposals for comprehensive health studies as unnecessary. And it has not apologized for any of its contamination or deception. "In the absence of data, local residents seem to believe the worst. The stories linger: The cancer cluster up the hill. The guy who burned the soles off his boots while walking on Monsanto's landfill. The dog that died after a sip from Snow Creek, the long-abused drainage ditch that runs from the Monsanto plant through the heart of west Anniston's cinder-block cottages and shotgun houses. Sylvester Harris, 63, an undertaker who lived across the street from the plant, said he always thought he was burying too many young children."
In other words, there is no evidence that the PCB's released by Monsanto caused any harm to the residents of Anniston. Going through the archives, I see that there has already been an extensive thread about Bjorn Lomborg and _The Skeptical Environmentalist_ on this list, so I'll pass on mentioning anything from that book. ;-) Regardless of whether PCB's are deadly to humans in the levels released by Monsanto or not, Monsanto willfully dumped pollutants known the be persistent and potentially very harmful into a local community and did very stem their activities; more money was spent on media relations over the issue than on actual cleanup. In my mind, Monsanto acted deplorably; ethics and principles still matter (indeed, they matter now more than ever). Do we really want a company with a mindset like this involved in our food production? At 07:40 AM 1/3/2002, you wrote: >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46648-2001Dec31.html Sliante, Richard S. Crawford http://www.mossroot.com AIM: Buffalo2K ICQ: 11646404 Y!: rscrawford MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "It is only with the heart that we see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." --Antoine de Saint Exup�ry "Push the button, Max!"
