An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

Monsanto has been hit with 77 lawsuits alleging that “the same series of occurrences involving the negligent and otherwise unlawful release of dioxin from properties owned and/or controlled by the defendants caused or significantly contributed to their cancers.” The suits total over $685 million in compensatory and punitive damages, all related to a plant in Nitro, WV.

Dioxin has been suspected of being a carcinogen since the 1960s. The suits allege that the plant in Nitro regularly disposed of dioxin in an unlawful manner and that the process used for manufacturing was both dusty and poorly controlled by plant management. Both of these practices could have exposed workers needlessly to a suspected cancer causing agent.

One of the critical ethical actions required by employers is the protection of workers from injury and illness in the workplace. Given the controversy surrounding Agent Orange, of which dioxin is a component, Monsanto can reasonably be expected to have known of the dangers to which employees were being exposed. The suits could prove that Monsanto has been guilty of damaging and illegal Bad Business for years.