http://www.npr.org/2012/02/01/146144078/

For about two decades, ending in 1971, a former Monsanto chemical plant in West Virginia produced the herbicide 2,4,5-T which was used in "Agent Orange" — the defoliant the military sprayed over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

Nitro became a town during World War I , named after the type of gunpowder workers produced there. Later private companies like Monsanto manufactured other chemicals in Nitro, employing thousands of people. It's always been a chemical town.

"If you ever drove over the I-64 bridge at Nitro, you really got an odor back in the '60s and '70s," says Nitro Mayor Rusty Casto.

The Vietnam War connection has longtime peace activists paying attention.

"We need to have the facts about what these chemicals were, what they were all about, where the residue then was deposited," says Jim Lewis, a retired Episcopal priest in nearby Charleston.

The class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of tens of thousands of people who lived, worked, and went to school in Nitro after 1949. The suit claims the company spread toxic substances all over town, mainly dioxins, which have been linked to cancer. At issue in this case: whether Monsanto will have to pay millions of dollars to monitor the health of everyone included in the case.

"Of course I know a lot of people in Nitro have had cancer, but I'm not sure [whether] they can blame that on the plants or not."

"One man developed bladder cancer during the course of the trial. The jury found in his favor and awarded him some moderate damages."

"So you just brand this class area as 'dangerous' from a health standpoint, but there's nobody to clean it up,"

I'm sorry, but just branding a CITY as " 'dangerous' from a health standpoint", and not sending anyone to clean up is no different then class warfare. I don't know about you, but I find crimes against humanity immoral.