Document 6wn3L1XzLGO34aOazRZ1Jpk21

Monsanto MDK S LOCATION) W# R. COREY - B 2SA January 3, 1971 _ GENERAL ELECTRIC VIS IT /NEW YORK ' DECEMBER 15, 1971 TO : PILE JAN 4 1972 H. S. Bergen C. P. Cunningham J. Mason /-. J. Putzell On December 15 Mr. E. J. Putzell, John Mason, Howard Bergen and I met with executives of G.E. in New York to discuss the PCB situation and its many ramifications. Those attending the meeting from G.E. were: Messrs. . A. E. Peltosola, Group Vice President C. J. Meloun, General Manager Transformer Division T. A. Vanderslice, General Manager Capacitor Division E. L. Dobbins, Pittsfield, New York L. P. Hart, Jr., Hudson Falls, New York M. Drucker, Bridgeport, Connecticut John F. McAllister, Corporate Executive Staff Walter A. Schlotterbeck, Corporate Counsel Donald J. Voss, Waterford, New York This meeting was set up between Mr. Putzell and Mr. Robert M. Estes, Senior V.P. and General Counsel of G.E. Unfortunately, Mr. Estes was unable to attend due to an accidental injury. Mr. Mason reviewed the history of the recent events leading up to our decision to have the meeting. He pointed out the numerous studies and indicated that PCB's may be accumulating in the environment. He further stated that in some instances PCB's have been found in food or in the food chain. He further informed the G.E. group that because of Monsanto's concern over the problem we are discontinuing sales of PCB's in all applications except as dielectric fluids for use in transformers and capacitors. . It was further stated that since Monsanto understands, and G.E. confirmed, that PCB's are essential in the manufacture of certain types of transformers and capacitors, Monsanto desires to continue to sell PCB's for these closed system uses. However, in order that Monsanto may continue to make such sales a Corporate decision has been made that such sales must be made in conformance with certain restrictive policies which have been adopted. IN-IB MV. it-es 0520213 PCB-ARCH0744861 -2- Mr. Putzell explained that because of the legal exposure involved we must require that our customers using PCB's for dielectric applications sign agreements to indemnify and hold harmless Monsanto in the use of these products. Such an agreement was left with the G.E. people and they were requested to sign it. The entire PCB issue was discussed in detail and it was felt the G.E. executives had a full appreciation of the situation and understood Monsanto's position. They agreed to give the matter immediate consideration and we left with the understanding that Mr. Estes would contact Mr. Putzell as promptly as possible with G.E.'s decision. They were told that timing is a very important concern and that it would be most important' to us to receive an answer from them by mid-January 1972. Before the meeting concluded Mr. Bergen explained that the economics of our PCB operations have been adversely affected because of our discontinuance of all sales for other than dielectric uses and our total production has been reduced by nearly 50%. For this reason it will undoubtedly be necessary for us to increase the price of PCB's on our remaining sales to the electrical industry and on questioning he indicated the price increase would probably be in the range of 3-5C/lb. The G.E. people with whom we talked understood the problem and it was felt they would not be surprised when we increased the price. . /jf COREY 0520214 PCB-ARCH0744862