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What customers must know to guard themselves after a court docket finds chemical firm Monsanto-Bayer accountable for mind injury and different well being points brought on by publicity to poisonous polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in fluorescent lights.
After we purchased our dwelling (inbuilt 1951), one of many very first updates I made was to exchange the fluorescent monitor lights within the kitchen. I opted as an alternative for conventional incandescent fixtures and bulbs.
I knew on the time that the circadian rhythm disrupting blue gentle, dirty electricity and large EMF field from fluorescent bulbs posed a critical long-term well being hazard.
Little did I do know that the fixtures themselves have been essentially the most poisonous of all because of the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs.
PCBs in Fluorescent Lights
PCBs belong to a broad household of artificial natural chemical compounds often known as chlorinated hydrocarbons.
These chemical compounds have been domestically manufactured from 1929 till manufacturing was banned in 1979. (1)
Whereas meals equivalent to contaminated fish is the first supply of PCB publicity to people, different environmental dangers exist as nicely. (2)
One of the vital widespread and but ceaselessly neglected routes for contamination is airborne PCBs.
This hazard continues at this time even if the federal authorities banned them in 1979.
For instance, for a number of a long time, fluorescent lights have been manufactured utilizing PCBs. A few of these poisonous fixtures are nonetheless in use in buildings constructed previous to 1979.
This contains colleges, business buildings and houses!
Well being Dangers from PCB Publicity
Occupational and epidemiologic research display that hostile well being results from PCB publicity can contain almost any and all bodily programs together with: (3)
- Cardiovascular
- Gastrointestinal
- Endocrine
- Immune
- Musculoskeletal
- Neurological programs
Academics Win Lawsuit for Hurt from Fluorescent Lights
Whereas PCBs may cause widespread injury, it’s the mind damaging neurological results that fashioned the crux of a lawsuit by lecturers from the Sky Valley Schooling Middle in Monroe, Washington in opposition to the chemical producer Monsanto-Bayer.
Rick Friedman, one of many attorneys representing the lecturers, mentioned:
This can be a huge step in holding Monsanto accountable for poisoning each man, lady and baby in North America. If politicians received’t make Monsanto clear up its mess, juries will. (4)
The Seattle Instances reported that the three lecturers have been awarded $185 million in compensatory and punitive damages by a King County Superior Court docket jury. (5)
The award was in extra of the $10 million per instructor and punitive damages of 3 times the compensatory damages sought by the prosecution.
The trial court docket made the award after the regulation agency argued that Monsanto was topic to Missouri regulation. That is the state the place the multinational company is headquartered and made its selections. (5)
Extra Lawsuits on the Means
The lecturers named within the lawsuit are simply the tip of the iceberg of what’s coming down the pike.
Greater than 200 lecturers, college students and oldsters have been uncovered to lots of of fluorescent lighting fixtures leaking PCBs into the indoor air of the varsity, which was inbuilt 1950.
The case is the primary of almost two dozen lawsuits representing the claims of those people who frolicked on the Sky Valley Schooling Middle.
Images and testimony filed with the court docket from a few dozen plaintiffs pertaining to medical issues embrace:
- infections
- respiratory issues
- coronary heart palpitations
- reminiscence points
- nausea
- blisters and peeling pores and skin
- scalp cysts
Contaminated Indoor Air from Leaky Fluorescent Fixtures
Not less than three lecturers submitted air high quality stories taken through the years to the court docket as proof of contamination of the varsity from the PCB leaks from the fluorescent fixtures.
This case together with the avalanche of others within the pipeline can hopefully function a wake-up name to corporations, colleges and owners that fluorescent fixtures put in previous to 1979 must be eliminated instantly by a talented skilled.
For instance, I nonetheless have an previous fluorescent monitor gentle in my storage. Whereas I not often flip it on, I can be having it eliminated as quickly as attainable!
Definitely, anybody with unexplained signs that might be attributed to PCB poisoning ought to rigorously assess potential environmental publicity through fluorescent lighting in buildings they commonly go to and spend time inside.
Did Monsanto Disguise What it Knew?
In a associated case, the state of Washington accused Monsanto of hiding what it knew concerning the hurt poisonous PCBs pose to human well being and the atmosphere. (6)
Of essential word is that Monsanto was the ONLY firm to supply PCBs from 1929 till they have been banned outright in 1979.
Sadly, it appears Monsanto has been harming individuals lengthy earlier than its Nineties debut of Roundup Prepared GMO seeds.
(1) EPA: Study Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
(2) Routes of Publicity to PCBs
(3) Hostile Well being Results of PCBs
(4) King County jury awards $185M to three lecturers who suffered mind injury from toxins at Monroe faculty
(5) 3 U.S. Academics Awarded $185 Million from Monsanto for Chemical Publicity
(6) Monsanto bought banned chemical compounds for years regardless of identified well being dangers, archives reveal
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