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Monsanto

Monsanto, a St. Louis chemical company known until the 1960s as Monsanto Chemical Company, sold Resinox phenolic plastics, which an asbestos product reference lists among its asbestos products, and, through its Lion Oil division, asphalt roof coatings and protective coatings containing asbestos. Its chemical plants, including the one at Texas City, Texas, used asbestos insulation and gaskets, and later asbestos lawsuits named it as a premises owner. In 2001, as Pharmacia Corporation, formerly Monsanto Company, it answered an asbestos plaintiff's discovery in Texas; the library holds no trust or bankruptcy record for it.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

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Asbestos products

Plastics. In January 1944 the trade journal Asbestos printed an article on asbestos in plastics "prepared by the Plastics Division of Monsanto Chemical Co., Springfield, Mass."9 It said that "in the present phenolic molding materials asbestos retains its place as a standard filler," and listed uses such as heater plugs, circuit breaker bases, utensil knobs and handles, and tank and airplane parts.9 A Monsanto Plastics brochure, now a Union Carbide trial exhibit, lists Resinox phenolic compounds, and the Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases lists Resinox among Monsanto products for 1941 to 1959.6,10

Asphalt coatings. Lion Oil Company of El Dorado, Arkansas, appears in a 1962 Union Carbide insulation manual as "A Division of Monsanto Chemicals Company."1 The Sourcebook lists a Lion Asbestos Asphalt Roof Coating under Monsanto Chemical, as of 1953, described as "petroleum asphalt & asbestos filler."2 A 1960 patent by two El Dorado inventors, assigned to Monsanto Chemical Company, used a short-fibered "7M Grade" asbestos as filler in an asphalt adhesive for fixing aluminum foil to roofs and tanks.4,11 In April 1971 Asbestos reported that Monsanto Company of El Dorado had introduced AL-KOTE, part of its Lion Nokorode line of protective coatings, which "contains asphalt and long-fibered asbestos as well as reflective aluminum."3 A 1967 Monsanto patent for a fire-resistant asphalt mastic gives an example containing 7T asbestos.5 An earlier patent, granted in 1939 and assigned to Monsanto Chemical, covers a heat-insulating material that could be compounded with asbestos fibers.12

Monsanto's plants

The Monsanto Chemical plant at Texas City, Texas, was badly damaged in the ship explosion at Texas City on April 16, 1947.13 In a report printed in The Asbestos Worker, an insulators' union officer wrote that a Standard Asbestos Company crew had finished its job at the Monsanto plant the day before.13 Asbestos reported that rescuers wore asbestos suits to enter the ruins of "Monsanto Chemical Company's $10,000,000 plant."14 At its March 1953 session, reported in April 1953, the insulators' union's General Executive Board approved a petition for a maintenance charter at Monsanto Chemical Co., Texas City, and the union's November 1961 directory lists Local No. 111, Texas City, as "Monsanto Chemical Co., Maintenance Only."15,16

Clarence Borel, whose case became Borel v. Fibreboard, testified in a 1970 deposition that he worked at Monsanto Chemical Co. in Texas City in 1960 and that the insulation used there was, "if I remember," Kaylo; his work history read at the 1971 trial lists his employer on that job as Mundet Cork or Armstrong.17,18

In its 2001 discovery answers, Pharmacia (Monsanto) admitted that asbestos-containing insulation was used or installed at its Texas facilities until 1972, "at which time Defendant ceased purchasing such asbestos-containing insulation products," and that asbestos gaskets may have been used after 1972 while it sought a substitute.7 It said Johns-Manville and Owens-Corning made some of the insulation at those plants, and it named makers or distributors of asbestos materials there, among them J. T. Thorpe, several gasket suppliers and Lion Oil ("Nokorode, a water-proofing mastic"), the El Dorado company the 1962 manual lists as a Monsanto division.1,7 It said its plants "began the systematic removal of asbestos-containing materials in the 1970's."7

A 1986 Union Carbide record of a telephone call with Paul L. Brewer of Monsanto's W. G. Krummrich plant in Sauget, Illinois, says that, by company order, asbestos insulation, packing and gaskets were not to be bought or designed in unless no other material would work, that graphite packing was replacing asbestos packing, and that "There is no target to have the plant asbestos-free."19 A year earlier, Union Carbide's own Texas City plant had listed Monsanto among the firms it would contact about their asbestos plans.20

What the documents show

The same 2001 answers set out Monsanto's position on when it became aware of the hazard. Monsanto admitted that "there were persons within Monsanto who were aware by 1966 that exposure to high concentrations of asbestos fibers over a prolonged period of time had the potential to present a health hazard."7 It also stated that it "provided a safe workplace and appropriate safety information to workers on its premises at all relevant times," that it recommended dust masks even before it acquired its first Texas plant from the U.S. Government in 1946, and that by 1950 it provided respirators approved by the U.S. Bureau of Mines.7

Union Carbide's papers mention Monsanto as a customer and a sales prospect for its Calidria asbestos. In April 1973 Union Carbide's John L. Myers sent his Australian colleague health information on Calidria asbestos to "pass on to Hatrick or Monsanto."21 In 1977 Union Carbide Australia reported that Monsanto Chemicals there had rejected Calidria grade RG-244 "on toxicity grounds" four years earlier, but that its personnel had changed and sales efforts had resumed.22 Monsanto Company locations in Ontario, California, and St. Louis appear on a 1980 Union Carbide list of Calidria ship-to addresses.23 An August 1983 Union Carbide call report on a floor-tile customer says that Monsanto was promoting its own asbestos substitute for floor tile, a hardwood pulp called SANI-WEB, without much success.24

Lawsuits

No asbestos trust or bankruptcy for Monsanto appears in the library. In Thomas v. AP Green Industries (La. Ct. App. 2006), a carpenter's family sued premises owners, and the jury's allocation of fault, as the opinion reproduces it, assigned 10 percent to Monsanto; the opinion says that on his Monsanto job he cut transite, an asbestos-cement product made by Johns-Manville.8 Lerille v. Monsanto Corporation (E.D. La. 2007), a claim of exposure through a worker's clothing, was decided only on whether the case had been properly removed to federal court.25

References

  1. UC-4036: Thermal Insulation and Accessories Manual, Union Carbide Chemicals Company (1962), p. 67
  2. Lion Asbestos Asphalt Roof Coating (Monsanto Chemical), product page
  3. Asbestos, April 1971, p. 20
  4. Asphalt adhesive composition (US Patent 2,923,638, 1960)
  5. Fire resistant asphaltic compositions (US Patent 3,342,614, 1967)
  6. Resinox (Monsanto), product page
  7. UC-1892: Pharmacia Corporation (f/k/a Monsanto Company) Objections and Responses to Plaintiff's First Interrogatories, Requests for Production and Requests for Admissions, Gillum v. GAF Corp. (2001), pp. 1, 7–9, 15–16, 20
  8. Thomas v. AP Green Industries, Inc. (La. Ct. App. 2006)
  9. Asbestos, January 1944, p. 14
  10. UC-5279: Monsanto Plastics Product Brochure, "Serving Industry... Which Serves Mankind"
  11. Asbestos, June 1960, p. 62
  12. Thermal Insulating Composition (US Patent 2,174,770, 1939)
  13. The Asbestos Worker, July 1947, p. 8
  14. Asbestos, May 1947, p. 14
  15. The Asbestos Worker, April 1953, p. 5
  16. The Asbestos Worker, November 1961, p. 30
  17. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File, Deposition of Clarence Borel, day 2, p. 80
  18. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File, Trial transcript, volume IV, p. 105
  19. UC-3154: G. B. Elder Record of Telephone Conversation with Paul L. Brewer of Monsanto's Krummrich Plant on Replacing Asbestos Products (1986)
  20. UC-1083: F. S. Provenzano to Plant Letter Lists transmitting the Texas City Plant Asbestos Insulation Action Plan (1985), p. 3
  21. UC-962: John L. Myers to P. C. Weeks on Asbestos Health Questions and RG-244 Sales in Australia (1973)
  22. UC-2861: A. L. Barnes (Union Carbide Australia) to John L. Myers on a Visit to Australia to Support Calidria Asbestos Sales (1977), p. 2
  23. Union Carbide 538: Calidria Shipments to UCC Facilities and Customer Ship-To List (1980), p. 40
  24. UC-244: Calidria Customer Call Reports on Kentile Floors, Inc. (1977–1985), p. 15
  25. Lerille v. Monsanto Corporation (E.D. La. 2007)

Asbestos products

3 products our documents name Monsanto as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Court cases

2 court decisions in our case-law library name Monsanto as a defendant, newest first.

In the Union Carbide documents

Monsanto is named in 22 Union Carbide documents dated 1956 to 2001 (1 as the source, 22 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Monsanto, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Monsanto Company · Monsanto Chemicals · Monsanto Chemical Company, Plastics Division · Monsanto Co · Monsanto Chemical Co · Monsanto Chemical Company, Plastics Division, Springfield, Massachusetts.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Monsanto, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.

Cite this page

“Monsanto.” AsbestosClaims.Law Library. https://asbestosclaims.law/library/organizations/monsanto.

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This page is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every asbestos case turns on its own facts, exposure history, diagnosis, deadlines, available evidence, and applicable law. Reviewing this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, call 833-4-ASBESTOS for a free case review.