Several lawsuits have been filed and are seeking class action status against the companies alleging negligence and unlawful release of dioxin significantly contributed to cancer. The suits were filed in Putnam Circuit Court and list Monsanto Company, Pharmacia Corporation, Akzo Nobel Inc., Flexsys America, Solutia Inc., Apogee Coal Company, and related companies as defendants. The complaints maintain the defendants knew or should have known the Nitro plant site was contaminated and dangerous.
The cases claim that during the years that Monsanto was operating its trichlorophenol plant in Nitro, it adopted an unlawful practice of disposing of dioxin waste materials by a continuous process of open pit burning. The complaints allege more than 3,000 pounds of a dioxin was released into the air and sampling showed levels of 2,200 parts per trillion, while US Environmental Protection Agency standards require a level less than 4 parts per trillion.
Monsanto owned the plant from 1934 to 2000. The Nitro plant was operated by Monsanto until 1995 when the plant merged with Akzo Nobel and began operating as Flexsys America Inc. In 1997, Monsanto renamed a subsidiary as Solutia Inc. and the Nitro was distributed to Solutia. The plant closed in 2004.
The dioxin in question - known as 2,4,5 trichlorophenoxyacidic acid or 2,4,5-T - was used by the military as part of the herbicide "Agent Orange" in Vietnam.
The proposed class is made up of persons with one or more dioxin related cancers and who lived near the plant for at least two years during the period 1949 to the present and/or have attended school in the area for at least two years and/or who have been employed in a building in the area for two years or more.
