The agrochemical conglomerate Monsanto, a subsidiary of the German giant Bayer, is ordered to pay a $857 million fine for damages and interest to seven former students and volunteer parents of a school northeast of Seattle, due to exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pollutants classified as "forever" chemicals. Monsanto was convicted on Monday, by a U.S. court but plans to appeal the decision.

In a statement, Monsanto's administration clarified its intention to appeal this decision, as it has previously done in other cases connected with the specific educational institution, Sky Valley Education Center, in the city of Monroe. Five former students and two parents had filed a lawsuit in King County court, which includes Seattle, alleging that exposure to PCBs, leaking from lighting fixtures, made them ill.

Decisions have already been made for teachers, other students, and parents of the same school, involving the payment of fines amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. Monsanto has repeatedly reminded that it ceased producing PCBs, chemicals intended to prevent fires, in 1977, before they were banned by the U.S. government in 1979.

The company “never warned anyone that (PCBs) could last much longer than anything they were placed in,” emphasized Felix Luna, the lawyer representing the seven plaintiffs, in his speech. “It never warned that when they enter the human body, they remain for life, that they are neurotoxic,” and pose a “risk” to public health, he added.

The agrochemical group faces a series of other lawsuits related to the consequences of PCBs. In its announcement, Monsanto recalled that it has been acquitted in many cases.

The company, acquired in 2018 by Bayer for a staggering amount ($63 billion), has been repeatedly convicted to compensate people who came into contact with its herbicide Roundup, containing glyphosate as an active ingredient.

In mid-November, a jury in Jefferson City, Missouri, ordered Monsanto to pay $1.5 billion in damages and interest to three Americans who attributed their non-Hodgkin's lymphoma to prolonged use of Roundup.

The company has also appealed this conviction.