The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

18 the world according to monsantothreat of legal action brought by its own customers was weighing ever moreheavily on the company. In 1965, an internal memo reported a telephoneconversation with the head of an electrical company that used Aroclor 1242as an engine coolant. The manufacturer had apparently said that in his ownplant Aroclor spills on the floor were common. The memo noted: “I was brutallyfrank and told him that this had to stop before he killed somebody withliver or kidney damage.”“Criminal” ConductIn the face of the alarming reports coming from the field, there were veryfew voices who spoke up against the general inertia, including Dr. J.W. Barrett,a Monsanto scientist based in London, who suggested in 1955 thatstudies be conducted to rigorously evaluate the toxic effects of Aroclor. Kellyresponded curtly: “I don’t know how you would get any particular advantagein doing more work.” Two years later, the head of the medical department,with the same self-assurance, commented on the results of an experimentconducted by the U.S. Navy with Pydraul 150, a PCB used as a hydraulicfluid in submarines. “Skin applications of Pydraul 150 caused the death ofall the rabbits tested. ...No matter how we discussed the situation, it wasimpossible to change their thinking that Pydraul 150 is just too toxic for usein a submarine.”It is surprising when reading these documents to see the extent to whichthe company’s position was apparently immune to challenge. It conscientiouslycollected alarming data, which it hastened to lock in a drawer, keepingits eyes riveted on sales instead: “2.5 million pounds per year,” crowedthe author of a 1952 document. But there were moments when I began todream of a possible change in the company’s behavior.For example, on November 2, 1966, the report of an experiment conductedat Monsanto’s request by Professor Denzel Ferguson, a zoologistfrom Mississippi State University, arrived in St. Louis. His research teamhad immersed twenty-five caged fish in Snow Creek, where waste from theplant was dumped and which, as we have seen, flowed through the city ofAnniston. “All 25 fish lost equilibrium . . . and all were dead in 3½ minutesand...blood issues from the gills after 3 minutes exposure,” the scientistreported. He went on to say that at certain points the water was so polluted