UA Professor Details How Chemical Dumping Affects Anniston

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Monsanto Co. held its cards close to the vest, refusing to publicly acknowledge the damage its PCB pollution was doing in Anniston, even though internal memos revealed the company knew about the dangers of its chemical dumping since the 1960s. Now a University of Alabama researcher has written a book that sheds new light on a pollution scandal that resulted in a $700 million legal settlement and—according to the EPA—still affects the bucolic southern city today.

Dr. Ellen Griffith Spears’ new book, “Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution and Justice in an All-American Town,” looks at a more than 140-year period in Anniston, and it traces how a combination of chemicals, money and people transformed the city into “one of the most toxic towns in the United States,” according to a 2002 60 Minutes report.

“When you look at the existence of environmental injustice in Anniston, it has a long and complex history,” said Spears, an assistant professor in American studies and New College. “That’s due not only to egregious practices on the part of the chemical industry. The north Alabama region’s over-dependence on military production and Cold War chemicals weapons storage had a harmful environmental impact, too. The problems are also rooted in Anniston’s racial history and class inequalities.”

In the mid-1990s, residents of Anniston began a legal fight against the agrochemical giant Monsanto over the dumping of PCBs in the land and the streams that ran through the city’s historically African-American and working-class white west side. Resulting trials brought about the $700 million settlement on behalf of more than 20,000 plaintiffs, according to an August 2003 report in The New York Times.

Spears brings attention to key figures who shaped Anniston, including Monsanto’s founders, activists and residents whose lives and health were deeply affected by the town’s military-industrial history and legacy of racism.

PCBs are a group of 209 similar synthetic chemicals. They are oily liquids or solids, clear to yellow in color, most with no smell or taste. PCBs are found as mixtures, and they are very stable and resistant to extreme temperature and pressure. They were manufactured in the U.S., mainly under the trade name Aroclor, by the Monsanto Chemical Co.

Prolonged exposure to PCBs carries considerable health risks. The chemicals are very persistent, and are hard to eradicate from an environment. Even today, fish caught near Anniston carry a “no consumption” advisory.

“As early as the 1930s, researchers warned about exposure to the chemicals. In 1947, a public health specialist in St. Louis (Mo.) said ‘There is need to give warning’ about the harmful effects of PCBs,” Spears said. “The producers and users of PCBs knew the dangers of the chemicals long before the public. Articles appeared in scattered medical journals, but there was a culture of secrecy surrounding the chemicals and their effects.”

As Spears started her research, she realized the subject was much bigger than she first thought.

“Initially, I was set to begin in 1970, but I realized the story began in the 1870s, with the town’s founding as a model city in the industrializing ‘New South,’ and the chemical industry’s emergence after World War I,” she said. “I think readers will be shocked and disturbed by the depth of deception of the public by the chemical industry.”

“Baptized in PCBs”  became available in hardback from UNC Press April 7.

UA’s American studies department and the New College are part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships, Truman Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.