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Bayer argues PCB levels were safe, blames school for

ignoring

warnings

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Previous trials resulted in over $1.5 billion in verdicts

By Brendan Pierson and Dietrich Knauth

January 14 (Reuters) - A Washington state jury on

Tuesday said Bayer must pay $100 million to four

people who say they were sickened by exposure to toxic chemicals

known as PCBs made by the company's predecessor Monsanto that

were used in light fixtures at a Seattle-area school, but found

that the company was not liable for injuries alleged by ten

others, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

The verdict in a Washington state court, which follows a

two-month trial, is the latest in a string of trial losses for

the chemical company over the alleged contamination at the Sky

Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington.

More than 200 students, employees and parents have said they

developed cancer, thyroid conditions, neurological injuries and

other health problems from polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs

leaking from the school's light fixtures.

Verdicts in previous trials over the alleged contamination

at the school, which have involved different groups of

plaintiffs, totaled more than $1.5 billion, though some have

been reduced or overturned.

Bayer got a verdict for $185 million in favor of three

teachers and a teacher's spouse, overturned on appeal last year

on multiple grounds. The state appeals court agreed with Bayer

that the trial court wrongly applied the laws of Missouri, where

Monsanto was based, allowing the claims to be filed decades

after the company stopped producing PCBs in 1977. The company

said Washington law should apply instead, and it would block the

plaintiffs' claims as filed too late.

Washington's highest court is expected to hear an appeal of

that ruling.

In August, an $857 million verdict was slashed to $438

million, after a judge found that it included excessive punitive

damages.

Bayer acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018. Since then,

lawsuits over PCBs, and more significantly over claims that the

weedkiller Roundup caused cancer, have weighed heavily on the

company's shares.

PCBs were once used widely to insulate electrical equipment,

and were also used in such products as carbonless copy paper,

caulking, floor finish and paint. They were outlawed by the U.S.

government in 1979 after being linked to cancer and other health

problems. Monsanto produced PCBs from 1935 to 1977.

Plaintiffs have said that Monsanto knew of the dangers of

PCBs for decades, but concealed them from the public and from

government regulators.

Bayer has argued that plaintiffs have failed to prove that

their injuries were caused by PCBs, and that the levels found in

the school were deemed safe by the Environmental Protection

Agency. It has also said that the school ignored warnings from

government officials that the light fixtures in the aging

building needed to be retrofitted.