Statement on North Carolina PCB Personal Injury Litigation Filing
The following is Monsanto’s statement in response to the filing of the Glad et al. v Monsanto et al. case, filed in North Carolina Superior Court in Wake County, claiming personal injuries due to alleged exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at Poe Hall on the North Carolina State University campus:
"While the company will vigorously defend the litigation, we have great sympathy for anyone diagnosed with a serious illness. The company believes these claims lack merit and will respond in court in due course. The relevant and reliable science does not support a causal connection between low-level exposure to PCBs and the illnesses alleged in the complaint, and air testing conducted by NC State closest to the time when the building was operational found all of the air samples collected were below EPA’s health-protective guidelines for evaluating PCBs in indoor air.
Furthermore, NC State was and remains responsible for the construction and maintenance of Poe Hall. The University knew about the presence of PCBs in the building more than 30 years ago, as evidenced by PCB removal projects it undertook in 1991 and 2010 related to transformer oil and light ballasts which was reinforced by later testing by a university consultant as alleged in the complaint. NC State also should have been aware of EPA’s PCB-related notices regarding best maintenance practices that similarly date back about 30 years. Monsanto discontinued its production of bulk industrial PCBs nearly five decades ago, conducted hundreds of studies on PCB safety, and provided appropriate warnings to its customers based on the state-of-the science at the time.
To recover a substantial portion of its PCB-related litigation costs, Monsanto filed a complaint in Missouri to enforce its rights under 1972 indemnity contracts with its six largest former PCB customers who incorporated PCBs in their electrical equipment products. Under these contracts with electrical equipment manufacturers, these sophisticated companies agreed to defend and indemnify Monsanto for PCB-related litigation costs. PCB claims related to electrical equipment produced by these sophisticated companies make up a substantial portion of the pending claims and judgments in the PCB litigation, but there are other PCB-containing products that legal actions allege are the source of injuries or impairments as well."