The proposal was part of a $12 billion package announced in June this year, most of which covered litigation involving the US chemical group’s Roundup herbicide. In rejecting the PCB settlement, Fernando Olguin, district judge in Los Angeles, California, said it appeared “overly broad.”

Not only would the terms protect Bayer from future claims, Olguin said, they would also require the settling plaintiffs to indemnify the group against such claims. This, he noted, would affect most of the 2,528 class members. These included cities such as San Diego, California, Baltimore, Maryland, and Portland, Oregon, which stood to receive “very modest” payments of just $15,000 to $30,000. 

Olguin has given Bayer until the end of 2020 to adjust its proposal, a deadline the group has said it will meet.

Once widely used in applications ranging from equipment insulation to floor finish and paints and coatings, PCBs were banned by the US federal government in 1979 on suspicion that they could cause cancer and other health problems. Monsanto produced the chemicals from 1935 to 1977.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist