This article, by Paul J. Nyden, appeared Dec. 16 in the Sunday Gazette-Mail, Charlestown, West Virginia.
People who lived near the former Monsanto plant in Nitro that produced dioxins and related chemicals may still sue the company for personal and property damages.
So can residents who lived near more than 40 other chemical plants throughout the country that Monsanto once owned and operated.
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In December 2003, Solutia, a successor to most of Monsanto’s chemical plants and assets, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize its debts, including potential claims alleging dioxin and chemical poisoning.
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During a July 17 hearing, Beatty stated that a federal jury in Charleston ruled in April 1985 "that the chemical [dioxin] was poisonous and they did make the finding that the parties were harmed by the chemical....
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"The jury believed the chemical was harmful," Beatty stressed. "It just didn’t believe that there was the intention that was needed, that the [U.S. District] court found was needed, to get around the Workman’s Compensation law."
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After the trial, held by U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver, jurors concluded those workers could not collect Workers’ Comp benefits because state law required an employer to "intentionally" injure workers before employees could collect compensation for their injuries.
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Beatty told John C. Longmire, one of Solutia’s New York lawyers, that Calwell had "a jury verdict that made a finding in his favor on the chemical issue ... the chemical connection between exposure and illness.
Additional links include:
Another Monsanto study involved independent medical examinations of surviving employees by Monsanto physicians. Several hundred former Monsanto employees were too ill to travel to participate in the study. Monsanto refused to use the attending physicians' reports of the illness as part of their study, saying that it would introduce inconsistencies. Thus, any critically ill dioxin exposed workers with cancers such as non Hodgkin's lymphoma (associated with dioxin exposures) were conveniently excluded from the Monsanto study.
http://www.lightparty.com/...
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http://www.ffrd.org/...
This link provides a compilation of lawsuits and complaints against Monsanto
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The Dow Chemical Co. is asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to review the decision that upped the number of property owners suing it over dioxin contamination from a couple hundred to a couple thousand.
It also wants the case put on hold until the higher court makes a decision.
Saginaw County Circuit Judge Leopold Borrello in October certified the now nearly three-year-old suit, led by Freelanders Kathy and Gary Henry, as a class action, meaning about 2,000 property owners could take part in the litigation.
http://www.ffrd.org/...
Kathie Marchlewski, Midland Daily News
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DOD info on uses of Dioxin in the US
http://vietnamresearch.com/...