No new chemical wonders until they clean up the old ones
John Peterson Myers
The Keene Sentinel
Keene, New Hampshire
1 July 2000
Monsanto, a company that desperately needs to convince the public that genetically modified organisms represent a boon and not a bane for humanity, had an opportunity recently to demonstrate its good intentions regarding another of its products. Unfortunately the corporation did nothing, leaving the world to wonder whether its pretensions of good citizenship are fiction.
When delegates from around the world gathered in Bonn, Germany, last month under the auspices of the United Nations to continue negotiations toward eliminating toxins known as persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, they considered twelve chemicals that have been identified through decades of research to present serious harm to health and the environment. No credible public health authority argues that these compounds are safe. The newest science has revealed that even low levels of these compounds can undermine normal development of the fetus, with potentially serious long-term consequences from infancy into adulthood. Fertility may be impaired, immune systems compromised, and intelligence undermined.
Long prior to its recent metamorphosis into a bioengineering company, Monsanto was among the largest manufacturers in the U.S. of one of the twelve targeted compounds, PCBs. While banned for production and use in the United States in 1976, PCBs remain in the environment in large quantities and even now s