Exposed: Decades of Deliberate Contamination

For nearly four decades, Monsanto knowingly poisoned the residents of Anniston, Alabama. From 1935 to 1971, the company dumped tens of thousands of pounds of PCBs into creeks and buried them around the community — without ever warning its neighbors. BuzzFeed News Internal documents revealed Monsanto had been told as early as 1937 at Harvard that these chemicals were severely damaging to workers. Alabama Public Radio reported that they kept producing anyway.

A Lethal Legacy

PCBs are classified by international health authorities as Group 1 carcinogens — definitively causing cancer in humans. Studies of exposed workers found significant increases in liver cancer, gallbladder cancer, biliary tract cancer, malignant melanoma, brain cancer, thyroid cancer, intestinal cancer, and myeloma. CDC Research shows a strong link between PCB levels and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. (Also see related GreenFacts PCB reports.)

The Anniston Reckoning

In 2003, the truth finally caught up with Monsanto. Monsanto and Solutia agreed to pay $700 million to settle lawsuits from over 21,000 Anniston residents — one of the largest environmental contamination settlements in U.S. history. According to Beasley Allen, Monsanto paid $390 million, Solutia $50 million, and insurance covered $160 million. The companies were also required to perform court-supervised remediation and fund a medical clinic, health screenings, and prescription drug benefits for victims. Despite the massive payout, the companies admitted no fault.

Same Poison, Different Town

Anniston wasn’t Monsanto’s only dumping ground. The company’s Sauget, Illinois, facility produced 99% of all PCBs used industrially in the United States (per Washington University). When Anniston’s production ended in 1972, Sauget continued until 1977 (per Environmental Working Group). For decades, Monsanto discharged hazardous waste directly into sewers leading to the Mississippi River and dumped toxins into landfills that leached into soil, water, and air (per Allied Bennett Group).

Today, Sauget (population 141) hosts two EPA Superfund sites. The surrounding communities of East St. Louis and Cahokia Heights, both majority-minority and economically depressed, bear the brunt. The groundwater is so poisoned that local ordinances prohibit its use as drinking water; it’s not even safe for industrial use. 

In 2022, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sued Monsanto, alleging the company knew of PCBs’ toxicity while publicly denying any danger. The pattern is clear: manufacture deadly chemicals, hide the dangers, contaminate poor communities, then escape accountability while real people die.

The Driscoll Firm — Built on Accountability and Community Protection

The Driscoll Firm, focuses on right and wrong. The right and wrong that we were all taught at a young age, the right and wrong that we know when we see it. Environmental contamination is wrong, particularly when it has been done knowingly with disregard for others, without permission. We handle these cases — cases where dangerous chemicals have compromised the water, air, soil, and neighborhoods that people depend on every day. When contamination threatens a community, people deserve clear answers about what happened and why. Our work centers on uncovering the full truth, explaining the evidence with precision, and documenting how early decisions allowed preventable risks to grow.

In addition to environmental matters, the firm handles a wide range of complex, high-stakes litigation, including terrorism cases where American service men and women that have been killed or catastrophically injured, large-scale consumer-fraud matters, and actions involving significant harms to individuals and communities. Across these diverse areas, our focus remains the same: establishing accountability through facts, science, and a commitment to justice.

We partner with leading scientists — toxicologists, chemists, environmental engineers, and public-health experts — to trace contamination to its source and understand its full impact. Time after time, our investigations reveal the same troubling patterns: warnings that were ignored, hazards that were known but not corrected, and communities treated as expendable while the consequences fell on families who had no role in causing the harm.

Justice, responsibility, and accountability are the values our clients share — and they are the values that guide our practice. We approach every case with transparency, careful investigation, and respect for the people we serve. We do not minimize harm, and we do not ignore facts. We work to ensure that the complete story is brought forward and that responsibility is established through clear, credible evidence.

With nearly $2 billion in judgments and settlements secured for individuals, communities, and public entities, The Driscoll Firm is recognized for its commitment to protecting neighborhoods, restoring trust, and ensuring that environmental, chemical, and systemic harms are never left unaddressed.

Our mission is straightforward: to uncover the truth, to stand with victims and affected communities,
and to ensure accountability when hazardous substances or wrongful conduct put people at risk.

Representative Matters

The Driscoll Firm has held leadership positions in numerous significant cases, including the following:

  • All Plaintiffs Represented by John Driscoll v. Islamic Republic of Iran, No. 20-cv-622 (D.D.C.) — $1.67 billion judgment (FSIA)
  • Pennington, et al. v. Islamic Republic of Iran, No. 19-796 (JEB) (D.D.C.) — $299 million judgment (FSIA)
  • Tipsword v. I.F.D.A. Services, Inc., No. 09-cv-390-GPM-DGW (S.D. Ill.) — $58 million resolution
  • Jamerson, et al. v. Cedarhurst / Brammer, et al. v. Cedarhurst (Madison/St. Clair Cty., Ill.) — $3.26 million settlement (BIPA)
  • Boyce, et al. v. Gardant Management Solutions, No. 2017-L-719 (St. Clair Cty., Ill.) — $10 million settlement (BIPA)
  • Lark, et al. v. McDonald’s USA, LLC, et al., No. 17-L-559 (St. Clair Cty., Ill.) — $50 million settlement (BIPA)
  • In re: Morning Song Bird Food Litigation, No. 3:12-cv-01592 (S.D. Cal.) — $85 million nationwide settlement