Dear Reader,
For years I've been telling you how companies like Monsanto bend over backwards to hide the health risks of their products.
They fought tooth and nail to kill GMO labeling laws all over the country -- and to keep their popular weedkiller Roundup from getting a label saying it could give you cancer.
But now it looks like Monsanto and their political pals may be up to their dirtiest trick yet.
There's a bill working its way through Congress that would make sure Monsanto is never held responsible if a product it made for decades makes you sick.
Even if it kills you.
------------------------------
The little clause that closes the book
------------------------------
You've heard plenty about polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) over the years.
These chemicals were used all the time in fire retardants, paint, pesticides and even paper -- until they were banned in 1979 after we learned they cause cancer and brain problems.
But, as you can imagine, there are still lots of PCBs floating around today in buildings, schools, and the environment.
And nearly all this stuff was made by Monsanto.
That's right -- for decades Monsanto was the primary manufacturer of PCBs in the United States. And it's been settling lawsuits over people and towns that it poisoned ever since.
Now it looks like that may all be coming to an end, thanks to some well-connected political friends.
Right now the U.S. House of Representatives is considering a revision to the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 40 year-old law that governs how the EPA protects us from dangerous chemicals.
And, lo and behold, a mysterious paragraph has been inserted that would exempt PCB manufacturers (i.e. Monsanto) from any legal responsibility for the health and environmental problems their products caused.
Forever.
Town's drinking water supply ruined by PCBs? Cancer clusters popping up everywhere? That won't be Monsanto's problem any more.
And that's going to leave an awful lot of sick people and contaminated communities in the lurch.
I'm talking about places like Anniston, Alabama, that are still so contaminated with PCBs (even after a cleanup) that residents can't grow vegetables, kids can't play in the dirt, and people have to wear facemasks when they mow the lawn.
Monsanto, of course, is saying it never asked for this, and has no idea how this provision got added to the bill.
I'm sure we all believe that, right?
Actually, no one -- even lawmakers -- are coming forward to take credit for it. I guess it's just one of those mysterious things that seem to happen in Washington!
But should this bill go through with this "gift" to Monsanto in place, it will leave communities across the country trying to figure out how to foot the bill for the massive PCB contamination that's been left behind and is making their residents sick. Places such as Seattle and Spokane, Washington, and San Jose, Oakland and San Diego, California.
Fortunately, it's not too late for us to stop this political fix in its tracks. Contact your House rep and demand they pull this Monsanto bailout from the Toxic Substances Control Act Revision.
Because if there's anyone we should be bailing out, it's not Monsanto -- it's the poor folks it spent decades making sick.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
No comments:
Post a Comment