User:Fox/Monsanto

WORK IN PROGRESS Monsanto is a multinational, criminal, agricultural biotechnology corporation and the world's leading producer of genetically engineered seeds and recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). It was also the principal supplier to the U.S. military of Agent Orange between 1962 and 1971. When it comes to compromising human health, Monsanto sits at the leading edge of biotechnological deception.

Agent Orange
Agent Orange is a 50:50 mix of two phenoxy herbicides: 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid) and 2,4,5-T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy acetic acid). When suspicions of the harm caused to humans by Agent Orange began to emerge, Monsanto began a massive campaign of belittling scientific evidence proving its toxicity, including deliberately manipulating two Monsanto-sponsored studies of Monsanto workers accidentally exposed to herbicide. Significantly, Monsanto failed to reveal that it "cut corners" during the manufacturing process, leading to a contaminant becaming concentrated in the product. TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin) is a by-product of the manufacture of 2,4,5-T. It is usually present in concentrations of 0.05ppm; the chemical supplied for use in Vietnam contained 50ppm. TCDD is the most toxic of the dioxins, which are already the most toxic substances known to humans.

The Criminal Investigations Center of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uncovered a long pattern of fraud by Monsanto concerning dioxin contamination of its dioxin-exposed workers. Monsanto submitted false information to the EPA which directly resulted in weakened regulations and dioxin receiving a lesser carcinogenic potential ranking. Monsanto covered-up the dioxin contamination of a wide range of its products, either failing to report contamination, substituting false information demonstrating no contamination or submitting samples to the government for analysis which had been "sexed up" so that dioxin contamination did not exist.

Timeline
Source:
 * 1901: Founded by John Francis Queeny.
 * 1902: Manufactures its first product, Saccharin. U.S. government files suit over the safety of Saccharin, but loses.
 * 1917: Starts producing aspirin.
 * 1935: Starts producing phosphorus.
 * 1938: Starts producing plastics.
 * 1939-1945: Conducts research on uranium for the Manhattan Project in Dayton, Ohio. Has a representative at the first test explosion of the atomic bomb.
 * 1955: Starts producing petroleum-based fertilizers.
 * 1965: Monsanto internal documents admit that PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls used mainly as flame retardants and insulators - manufactured in the U.S. and at its plant in Newport, South Wales, under the trade name Aroclor, were accumulating in human breast milk, rivers, fish, seafood, wildlife and plants. They decide not to tell anybody else however.
 * 1969: Markets its Lasso herbicide (better known as Agent Orange)
 * 1976: Markets RoundUp
 * 1976: Produces Cycle-Safe, the world's first plastic soft-drink bottle. Suspected of posing a cancer risk, it is banned the following year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
 * 1985: Aquires Searle, producer of NutraSweet
 * 1982: Monsanto scientists genetically modify a plant for the first time.
 * 1986: Found guilty of negligently exposing a worker to benzene at its Chocolate Bayou Plant in Texas. Forced to pay $100 million to the family of Wilbur Jack Skeen, who died of leukemia after repeated exposure.
 * 1986: Monsanto and DuPont scientists produce a study disputing that formaldehyde causes cancer. At a congressional hearing the same year, medical specialists denounce the findings.
 * 1986: Monsanto campaigns against California's anti-toxics initiative, Proposition 65. The initiative prohibits the discharge of chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects into drinking water supplies.
 * 1987: Monsanto is one of the companies named in an $180 million settlement for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
 * 1988: A federal jury finds Monsanto Co.'s subsidiary, G.D. Searle & Co., negligent in testing and marketing of its Copper 7 intrauterine birth control device (IUD). The verdict followed the unsealing of internal documents regarding safety concerns about the IUD, which was used by nearly 10 million women between 1974 and 1986.
 * 1990: EPA chemists allege fraud in Monsanto's 1979 dioxin study, which claimed exposure to the chemical didn't increase cancer risks.
 * 1990: Monsanto campaigns against California's pesticide regulation Proposition 128, known as the "Big Green" initiative. The initiative is aimed at phasing out the use of pesticides, including Monsanto's product alachlor, linked to cancer and global warming.
 * 1991: Monsanto is fined $1.2 million for trying to conceal its discharge of contaminated waste water into the Mystic River in Connecticut.
 * 1995: Monsanto is sued after allegedly supplying radioactive material for a controversial study which involved feeding radioactive iron to 829 pregnant women.
 * 1995: Monsanto ordered to pay $41.1 million to a waste management company in Texas due to concerns over hazardous waste dumping.
 * 1995: "The Safe Shoppers Bible" asserts that Monsanto's Ortho Weed-B-Gon Lawn Weed Killer contains a known carcinogen, 2,4 D. Company officials argue that numerous studies have found no link to cancer.
 * 1997: The Seattle Times reports that Monsanto sold 6,000 tons of contaminated waste to Idaho fertilizer companies, which contained the carcinogenic heavy metal cadmium, believed to cause cancer, kidney disease, neurological dysfunction and birth defects.
 * 1999: Monsanto opens its Beautiful Sciences exhibit at Disneyland.
 * 1999: After international criticism, Monsanto agrees not to commercialize Terminator seeds.
 * 2000: Merges with Pharmacia & Upjohn, changes its name to Pharmacia Corporation.
 * 2003: The results of three years of British field trials into the effects of growing GM crops on surrounding plant and animal life demonstrate there is harm to the local ecosystem. Monsanto retreats from Europe, closing its European facilities.
 * 2004: Monsanto states its future developments in genetic agriculture engineering will take in "a much wider variety of plants, including those grown in the world's poorest regions."
 * 2004: Monsanto drops plans for marketing its genetically-modified wheat RoundUp Ready due to "consumer resistance" and commercial resistance from farmers around the world.
 * 2005: Fined $1.5m for bribing an Indonesian official in 2003 in a bid to avoid environmental impact studies being conducted on its genetically-modified cotton. Monsanto also admitted to paying bribes to a number of other high-ranking officials between 1997 and 2002.
 * 2007: Evidence emerges that Monsanto dumped thousands of tonnes of highly toxic waste in British landfill sites, knowing that their chemicals were liable to contaminate wildlife and people. 67 chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs which could have been made only by Monsanto, are leaking from one unlined porous quarry that was never authorised to take chemical wastes.