Monsanto hit with $857M verdict over PCBs in Washington state school

By Clark Mindock

(Reuters) – A jury in Washington state on Monday ordered Bayer (OTC:)’s Monsanto (NYSE:) to pay $857 million to former students and parent volunteers of a school northeast of Seattle who claimed chemicals made by the company called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, leaked from light fixtures and got them sick, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The jury found the company liable for selling products containing PCBs used in the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington.

Bayer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Monsanto has said previously that blood, air and other tests showed employees were not exposed to unsafe levels of PCBs at the school.

PCBs were chemicals once widely used to insulate electrical equipment and in other common products like carbon copy paper, caulking, floor finish and paint. The U.S. government outlawed the chemicals in 1979 after discovering links to cancer.