AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has filed a lawsuit against the agricultural and biotech company Monsanto.
The suit alleges Monsanto knew about the serious danger of a class of chemicals it sold for years before the substances were banned by the federal government.
Those chemicals, polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, were used in a number of products for about 40 years before they were discontinued for most uses in the late 1970s.
Frey claims to have evidence the company knew its products were toxic.
“We have evidence that Monsanto knew that its PCBs products were causing long-lasting harm and chose to continue to make money off poisoning Maine’s people and environment,” Frey said in a release Friday. “I am taking action to demand that Monsanto pay for the harm it knowingly caused our state.”
PCB contamination, like PFAS contamination, is known to persist in people, wildlife, and the environment. But unlike PFAS, PCBs were eventually banned.
The suit is seeking damages for injuries and the costs of cleanup and monitoring of Maine's waterways and ocean areas.
Monsanto issued the following statement in response:
“We will respond to the complaint in greater detail in court at the appropriate time, however, we believe this case is meritless as Monsanto never manufactured or disposed of PCBs in the State of Maine, and any PCB-containing products that could be the source of any impairments in the state were manufactured and disposed by third parties. Under applicable law, a manufacturer of component parts is not responsible for the downstream, third-party uses of a product that it lawfully introduced into the stream of commerce and over which it has had no control for nearly five decades. Monsanto discontinued its production of PCBs nearly five decades ago, conducted hundreds of studies about their safety, and provided warnings to its customers based on the state-of-the science at the time.
“The Company has strong defenses and will vigorously defend against these claims.”
The case was filed in Cumberland County Superior Court. The complaint can be found here.