FILE - This Monday, May 23, 2016, record photo, shows the Bayer AG firm logo displayed connected a gathering of the German cause and chemicals institution successful Berlin. Three schoolteachers successful Washington authorities who sued chemic institution Monsanto implicit vulnerability to materials successful fluorescent lights person been awarded $185 million. Bayer, which bought Monsanto successful 2018, said the institution disagreed with the verdict and whitethorn appeal. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - This Monday, May 23, 2016, record photo, shows the Bayer AG firm logo displayed connected a gathering of the German cause and chemicals institution successful Berlin. Three schoolteachers successful Washington authorities who sued chemic institution Monsanto implicit vulnerability to materials successful fluorescent lights person been awarded $185 million. Bayer, which bought Monsanto successful 2018, said the institution disagreed with the verdict and whitethorn appeal. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File) (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistribu)

SEATTLE – Three schoolteachers successful Washington authorities who sued chemic institution Monsanto implicit vulnerability to materials successful fluorescent lights person been awarded $185 million.

The instrumentality steadfast that represented the teachers, Friedman Rubin, said a assemblage returned the verdict Tuesday successful King County Superior Court. The teachers, who worked astatine the Sky Valley Education Center successful Monroe, Washington, said they suffered encephalon harm from vulnerability to polychlorinated biphenyls, oregon PCBs, successful the fluorescent lighting astatine the school.

“This is simply a large measurement successful holding Monsanto accountable,” the teachers’ attorney, Rick Friedman, said successful a statement.

Bayer, which bought Monsanto successful 2018, said the institution disagreed with the verdict and whitethorn appeal.

“The undisputed grounds successful this lawsuit does not enactment the conclusions that plaintiffs were exposed to unsafe levels of PCBs astatine the Sky Valley Education Center (SVEC) oregon that immoderate vulnerability could person perchance caused their claimed injuries,” Bayer spokesperson Susan Skiles Luke said successful a statement.

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The institution said the airy ballasts that were the absorption of the suit were obsolete.

“These are historical claims that subordinate to products Monsanto has not produced successful much than 40 years,” Luke said.

This was the archetypal of 22 trials involving teachers, parents and students who spent clip astatine the Sky Valley Education Center.

A 2019 Associated Press investigation recovered that millions of fluorescent airy ballasts containing PCBs astir apt stay successful schools and time attraction centers crossed the U.S. 4 decades aft the chemicals were banned implicit concerns that they could origin crab and different illnesses.

Many older buildings besides person caulk, ceiling tiles, level adhesives and overgarment made with PCBs, which sometimes person been recovered astatine levels acold higher than allowed by law.

PCBs are mixtures of compounds manufactured by Monsanto Co. and wide utilized arsenic coolants and lubricants successful electrical instrumentality until they were banned successful 1979.

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Monsanto besides has faced a deluge of litigation implicit its weed slayer Roundup. Last year, Bayer said it would wage much than $10 cardinal to settee thousands of lawsuits claiming Roundup causes cancer. The institution said the colony involves astir 125,000 filed and unfiled claims.

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This communicative has been updated to close the spelling of Susan Skiles Luke's name.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.