GADSDENDr. Renate Kimbrough defended her recent research on PCBs during the Monsanto trial Wednesday, after a plaintiff attorney showed evidence that some scientists and public health officials found flaws in her work.
Dr. Kimbrough, an expert for Monsanto who in the early 1970s discovered that PCBs cause cancer in rats, testified Tuesday that she believes PCBs do not cause significant health problems in humans.
During cross-examination Wednesday morning, plaintiff attorney Dan Fetterman alleged that Dr. Kimbrough "changed sides" after she left her job as an EPA scientist in 1991. Fetterman noted that, during the past five years, Dr. Kimbrough worked as a toxicological consultant for a number of large corporations with pollution problems, including Solutia, General Electric and Alcoa.
Much of Fetterman's evidence stemmed from Dr. Kimbrough's 1999 study of GE workers, which found no elevated rates of cancer.
He presented several published critiques of her study, including one letter written by Dr. Ian Nisbet, a expert for the 3,500 plaintiffs in the Monsanto trial who accuse the company of polluting their properties and their bodies with PCBs. Nisbet wrote in his letter that Dr. Kimbrough's 1999 study "conflicts with almost all other studies of human populations exposed to PCBs."
Also, in published papers, EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry expressed doubt about the study, saying that perhaps as many as 75 percent of the 7,000 GE workers included in the study never worked directly with PCBs. GE used PCBs as a heat transfer fluid in electrical equipment.
Fetterman noted that the American Chemical Society paid Dr. Kimbrough to write several articles on PCBs in the 1990s, in which she claimed that other scientists' findings of neurodevelopmental damages and illnesses linked to PCBs were not convincing.
Fetterman pointed out that Dr. Kimbrough published a review of PCB research on animal health effects while she still worked for the government, and that most of those effects from cancer to immune system suppression are the same ones that the plaintiffs allege they have from PCB exposures.
Dr. Kimbrough defended her work for corporations during redirect examination by Monsanto attorney Harlan Prater, saying that "a lot of research wouldn't have been done if companies didn't fund it."
She also explained that when she wrote her scientific review paper in 1987 in which she determined there were no significant health effects from PCBs she still worked for the government and had no corporate funding.
She defended her GE study, saying that she had carefully categorized the 7,000 workers based on the severity of their PCB exposures and that "all of these people had higher exposures than the general population. We didn't see anything."
Also during the trial Wednesday, Monsanto lawyer Buddy Cox presented three additional witnesses, including a former Monsanto employee, a current Solutia employee and an environmental engineer specializing in pollution cleanups.
First was Thomas Lackey, 79, of Munford, who worked for Monsanto's former Anniston plant for almost all of his adult life. Lackey was hired to work the plant in 1941 and began working in the PCB production facility in 1965. Part of his job involved ensuring that PCBs leaking out of the manufacturing process were either recycled or sealed and landfilled.
Lackey also worked in Monsanto's chlorine plant, which used mercury, and in its parathion (insecticide) plant. He told the jury that he and his co-workers were regularly screened for mercury and parathion poisoning, but not for PCBs.
Charles Chatman, 58, of Munford, also testified on behalf of his current employer, Solutia, saying that he was responsible in the mid-1960s for properly disposing of PCB wastes in metal drums in the Alabama 202 landfill. "If the lid wasn't sealed, we notified (the supervisor). If there wasn't a cover, we didn't carry it," he said.
Regarding PCB pollution in Choccolocco Creek, which has resulted in a fish advisory, Chatman said he would not eat the fish unless until he learned that the PCB levels were considered "safe."
John Woodyard, a Chicago-based environmental engineer, began testifying late Wednesday afternoon about his evaluation of Solutia's investigation and protective measures dealing with PCBs in its landfills and the risk posed by PCB levels found on the plaintiffs' properties.
"I have seen levels higher than on these properties," Woodyard said, regarding his other PCB cleanup work in the United States.
He said he believes Solutia has done a "great job" meeting the regulatory requirements for PCB investigation and cleanup.
The Monsanto trial resumes this morning with Woodyard's testimony.
