Monsanto's Ethical Practices

Monsanto’s Unethical Practices
Monsanto has faced troubles for years, and they are currently facing millions of dollars in lawsuits. Instead of taking responsibility for the destruction their company has caused Monsanto is doing everything it can not to assume the responsibility. They are breaking their code of ethics policies and other business rules by not taking responsibility. Monsanto’s code of ethics is written based their duties and responsibilities to the environment and its people. In the 1970s they created PCBs which is a very dangerous chemical and has caused people to die. However, now facing these lawsuits Monsanto wants to turn a blind eye, and this is not the ethical thing to do. Monsanto should be apologizing and trying to

Monsanto has violated this by contaminating numerous water sources with polychlorinated biphenyls also known as PCBs. PCBs were man-made chemicals that banned in the 1970 's for their long-term effects and side effects on people and the environment. After being heavily studied, they were found to be cancer causing and take a horrific toll on the environment. Monsanto was well aware of the side effects and damage that the PCBs could cause, and they still went ahead and produced them. However, even knowing all of these horrible things the PCB 's were capable of Monsanto continued to sell them. Today almost fifty years later from when PCBs were banned Monsanto is facing hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits from across the country. One of the cities that is suing Monsanto is Portland, Oregon for the company’s poor ethical decisions. The Willamette river that flows through Portland has been contaminated with PCBs which had appropriated through the Portland Harbor. The Mayor of Portland stated that the entire city had spent well over one billion dollars trying to decontaminate the harbor and river of the PCBs. The city now wants Monsanto to pay for the problems they have caused and are refusing to do so. Monsanto is claiming that they have no duty to pay for the cleanup or decontamination of theses bodies of water because they are a different company

While all of these lawsuits were pending the House of Representatives decided to modernize the Toxic Substance Control Act which would ultimately protect Monsanto. They added to section 7(c) " SEC. 7. IMMINENT HAZARDS. Section 7 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 U.S.C. 2606) is amended— (1) in subsection (b)(1), by inserting ‘‘(as identified by the Administrator without consideration of costs or other nonrisk factors)’’ after ‘‘from the unreasonable risk’’; and (2) in subsection (f), by inserting ‘‘, without consideration of costs or other nonrisk factors’’ after ‘‘widespread injury to health or the environment’’. (The House of Representatives 1992) This revision protected Monsanto for being liable for any damages caused to the environment from the PCBs. Monsanto is the only one to blame for this situation because they are the only company that made PCBs. The House of Representatives and Monsanto claim that this provision was not a favor. However, this rule would "benefit the only manufacturer in the United States of now-banned polychlorinated biphenyls, chemicals known as PCBs" (Lipton, E. (2016, February 29) The Senates environment and public works committee in addition to their new version of the TSCA act included that this revision of the bill should not apply to Monsanto and they should be held liable for all of the damages they caused. The cities also have a right to sue for the damages they incurred for Monsanto being careless. The House agreed but, added