In Small WV Town, Monsanto Faces Class-Action Suit Over Agent Orange Chemical

eldavojohn writes "Agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto is now at the receiving end of a lawsuit from representatives of anyone who lived in the small town of Nitro, WV from 1949 on. This suit alleges that Monsanto spread chemical toxins all over town — most notably the carcinogenic dioxins. The plant in question produced herbicide 2,4,5-T, which was used in Vietnam as an ingredient for 'Agent Orange.' [Note: link contains some disturbing images; click cautiously.] From the article: 'Originally the suit called for Monsanto to both monitor people's health and clean up polluted property. The court rejected the property claims last year, leaving just the medical monitoring.' Strange that the suit is only allowed to address the symptom and not the root cause."

Comments

You know what ?

[unity100]

Those fucks recently applied to whatever regulatory agency that regulates those stuff in the u.s., to permit usage of base elements used in agent orange, for agricultural pesticide applications again.......... it seems superbugs adapting to afflict their genetically modified corps have come too much for them. (was in slashdot news recently too)

If we would just allow free market

[Are You Kidding]

to function without interference, we would not have such problems. Right? Maybe Ron Paul, or one of his disciples will explain how that works in a case like this.

Long dead . . . 1949 & corporate personhood

[cfulmer]

So, I can pretty much guarantee that anybody who was involved in Monsanto's decisions 63 years ago is no longer at the company and, in fact, may no longer be alive. Why does it make sense to sue the current company and injure its current stockholders for something that those people did all that time ago?

The answer? The legal fiction that the company is a 'person' that, among other things, has to be responsible for its actions.

All the people complaining about companies not being 'persons' in regard to free-speech rights should be careful, because if they're not persons, then they're just collections of people. And in the US, we only hold people liable for things they're personally responsible for. For example, if your parents die owing a lot of money, you don't inherit their debt. If corporations are just collections of persons, then there's no sense in suing Monsanto for this today -- they weren't involved. At most, you could find out who made all the decisions and go back and sue their estates.

Washington Lawyers

[Tokolosh]

Agent Orange and its emotive supporters want to keep the revenue pump primed. Together with asbestos, this is productive government teat:

http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/112_HR_812.html
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/112_SN_1629.html
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_HR_2254.html
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_HR_637.html
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_HR_3491.html
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/110_HR_972.html
etc., etc.

Regarding free markets. My city used to dump raw sewage in the river, until it was sued in 1925 by a downstream town for polluting the water. After a court case, a treatment plant was built - no EPA or federal government required, common law is sufficient.