U Albany and Monsanto Seek to Silence Dr. David Carpenter

Dr. David Carpenter, founder and director of the University at Albany’s Institute for Health and the Environment, has been put on “administrative leave” for the last 9 months as the school investigates fees he had received for participation as an expert witness in cases alleging toxic pollution, particularly PCBs. These fees that Dr. Carpenter received, however, have been donated to either the university or his graduate students. The request came from lawyers for the Monsanto Company, which manufactures PCBs, a substance declared carcinogenic and banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1977. On Monday, the University said it wanted to halt Dr. Carpenter from testifying as an expert witness.