Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Part 4 and Part 5 of the Special Report

ANNISTON, Ala. – The Rev. Thomas Long doesn't have neighbors on Montrose Avenue anymore. Everyone is gone.

Widespread chemical contamination from a Monsanto plant was discovered in this quiet city in the Appalachian foothills back in the 1990s. In West Anniston, behind Long’s home, a church was fenced off, and men in "moon suits" cleaned the site for weeks. Nearby, boarded windows and sunken porches hang from abandoned shotgun houses. Stray dogs roam the narrow streets. A red "nuisance" sign peeks above the un-mowed lawn of one empty house. Bulldozers will be here soon.

But Long stayed. He was the only one on his street who chose not to move; he had lived in the same house for all but one of his 64 years.

Now he is stuck. Stuck on a street with no neighbors. Stuck with a property he's convinced is unclean. Stuck with an extraordinary load of chemicals in his body. And stuck with diabetes.

As the Environmental Protection Agency's oversight of the cleanup of this neighborhood stretches into its eighth year, new research has linked PCBs exposure to a high rate of diabetes in this community of about 4,000 people, nearly all African American and half living in poverty.

The findings add to a picture of the town's poor health following decades of contamination. It's the latest chapter in a saga that this poverty-stricken, powerless community feels has dragged on far too long.

"Monsanto walked away not doing their job. They left a community still sick, still dying and very dissatisfied," Long said.

Stubborn chemicals
Even today, people in West Anniston are among the most highly contaminated in the world.

For four decades, from 1929 until 1971, a Monsanto plant in West Anniston produced chemicals called PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls. Somehow – even today no one is quite sure how – the chemicals got into the soil and waterways.

Used mostly to insulate large electrical capacitors and transformers, PCBs were one of the most widely used industrial substances on Earth until they were banned in the United States, and most other developed countries, in the late 1970s.

PCBs are stubborn chemicals. They persist in soil and sediment for decades, perhaps centuries, and are locked away in the fatty tissues of animals, building up in food webs. Seventy percent of all the PCBs ever made are still in the environment.

The old Monsanto plant, now operated by Solutia Inc., doesn't have menacing smokestacks. PCBs are colorless, virtually invisible. But the health risks here are hiding in plain sight.

In Anniston, class action lawsuits were filed and settled. The national media came and went. Monsanto split up and left town. Some residents took buyouts and moved. Other houses were abandoned and with fenced off. Thousands of properties have been cleaned. A landfill just a short walk from Long's home has been filled with tainted soil removed from yards in the neighborhood. In 2003, Solutia and Monsanto paid a $600 million settlement to more than 20,000 people based on their exposure to PCBs. An additional $100 million was to be spent on cleanup and other programs.

3 Comments

1. 1. ZB 09:07 PM 6/13/12

   Yup, and Mitt Romney and the Republicans think there is too much government regulation of business. How many Annistons and Bank Bailouts do we have to have before the people of America wake up to the fact most of those businesses are heartless crooks.
   
   Next time lets see what happens when Monsanto builds a factory in Romney's backyard. These people make me sick.

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2. 2. nyscof 09:34 AM 6/14/12

   Fluoride Free Anniston's presentation to the Anniston Water Works & Sewer Board on 02-16-12
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1UmoYVNf8g&feature=player_embedded
   
   Facts were presented on water fluoridation dangers, recent scientific studies regarding fluoride's adverse health effects, and the fact that 'Hydrofluorosilicic Acid' (an industrial by-product) IS the chemical which is added to the tap water. Also, CDC warnings pertaining to dangers to infants who are given fluoride water and a proposal to put a moratorium on fluoridation until more tests are completed and warnings on water bills until this moratorium begins.
   More information at www.fluoridefreeanniston.com
   

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3. 3. bongobimbo in reply to ZB 06:07 PM 6/19/12

   Good for you! That would indeed be an appropriate judicial sentence after Romney is tried for his crimes.

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