AG Aaron M. Frey

Maine Attorney General Aaron M. Frey announced late last week that a lawsuit against agricultural biochemical company Monsanto in Cumberland County Superior Court.  The suit alleges the company knew of the harm caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), but continued to sell PCB products.

PCBs are toxic, dangerous, chemical compounds known to accumulate and persist in humans, wildlife and the enviroment.  The federal government banned PCBs for most users in the  late 1970s due to those properties.  Monsanto knew about PCB’s toxiciity many years before they were banned but continued selling them and even ramped up its sales after widespread harms were documented.  PCBs were used in a wide variety of products, including in plasticizers in paint and caulk and as insulating fluids in electrical capacitors and transformers.  Monsanto sold PCBs for approximately 40 years before discontinuing sale of the chemicals in approximately 1977.

“We have evidence that Monsanto knew that the PCB products were causing long-lasting harm and chose to continue to make money off poisioning Maine’s people and environment, said AG Frey.  “I’m taking action to demand that Monsanto pay for the harm it knowlingly caused our state.”

The company was founded in 1901 in Missouri.