Medical tests, house cleanup part of class-action settlement
This Monsanto chemical plant in Nitro, WV, seen in 1980, made 2,4,5-T, an ingredient in the dioxin-laced defoliant Agent Orange, used in the Vietnam War.
WINFIELD, WV — “Chemical giant Monsanto has agreed to pay millions of dollars to test thousands of current and former Nitro residents for disease and to clean up their homes.
Under the tentative agreement to a huge class-action lawsuit, Monsanto will provide class-members up to $93 million. The company has agreed to a 30-year medical monitoring program with a primary fund of $21 million for testing, and up to $63 million in additional funding, if necessary.
Monsanto also will pay $9 million for professional services to have class members’ homes cleaned. It also has agreed to pay court-approved legal fees incurred over the past seven years.
Circuit Judge Derek Swope mentioned the proposed settlement in a hearing Thursday in Putnam Circuit Court, and the agreement was officially announced in court Friday.
In their huge class-action lawsuit filed in 2004, Nitro residents said Monsanto unsafely burned dioxin wastes and spread contaminated soot and dust across the city, polluting homes with unsafe levels of the chemical.”
— Kate White, Charleston Gazette
Background:
Ruling leaves dioxin cleanup out of Monsanto trial
Long story of Monsanto and dioxin continues
