Bayer Faces Billions in Payouts for Decades-Old Toxic Mess (2)

Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit stopped making toxic PCBs a half century ago, but the legal fallout lingers even as many of the building materials made with the chemicals are no longer used in US homes, schools and factories.

On Tuesday Bayer was hit with a $100 million verdict in the most recent case blaming it for students and faculty at a Seattle-area public school being sickened by exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls,or PCBs, contained in aging fluorescent-light fixtures.

The company faces billions of dollars in exposure from a growing number of lawsuits over PCB products filed by state and ...