In Nitro, West Virginia, from 1949 to 1971, Monsanto produced an agricultural chemical known as 2,4,5,T,  In approximately 1964, the company began selling the product to the Armed Services to be used as part of the herbicide ‘Agent Orange’ for use in Vietnam. Residents during the period of manufacture involved in the law suit received injuries as a consequence of their abnormal exposure to dioxins/furans. A judge has now agreed to a settlement between Monsanto Company, resolving all claims in all pending litigation as well as all class actions filed in West Virginia.

Scott Partridge, vice president of Monsanto Company, says – these settlements ensure that both individual and community concerns are addressed, and services are made available for the people of Nitro. Class Counsel Stuart Calwell says – the settlements provide needed medical benefits and remediation services to the people of Nitro and broader community.  He adds – the principal goal of the litigation was to provide long-term medical monitoring and to provide professional cleaning of individual homes.

Approximately 45-hundred homes are located in areas where individual remediation of homes may be desirable.  A program will be created to offer free professional cleaning of these homes and provide funding of up to 9-million dollars for this purpose. Also, a thirty-year medical monitoring program will be established at a local hospital. This plan will be supported by a primary fund of 21-million dollars which will pay for medical testing of eligible class members.  Up to 63- million dollars in additional funding will be available over the thirty-year life of the medical screening program.

Courtesy: NAFB News