Jury: Monsanto must pay $857M over PCBs in Monroe school
MONROE — A King County jury awarded $857 million to women who claimed exposure to harmful chemicals manufactured by Monsanto at the Sky Valley Education Center, the latest resolution in extensive litigation that has cost the chemical giant upward of $1.7 billion.
The verdict, first reported by Law360 and Reuters, comes in the form of $784 million in punitive damages and $73 million in compensatory damages to seven plaintiffs, following a two-month trial in King County Superior Court.
Hundreds of students, parents, teachers and staff have sued Bayer Pharmaceuticals — which acquired Monsanto in 2018 — over polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, that leaked from light fixtures at the Monroe school. They claim brain injuries and other health issues stemming from the exposure that officials allowed to fester, a Seattle Times investigation found.
Banned in 1979 by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the manmade chemicals were used in fluorescent light ballasts. Monsanto produced the PCBs, also known as Aroclors.
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