DuPont settles pollution case

POMPTON LAKES, N.J. -- DuPont settled a chemical contamination case with people who said they were sickened by exposure to chemicals from a now-defunct DuPont munitions plant.

Under the settlement, the company agreed to provide lifetime medical monitoring to 1,500 current and former residents, and allow 166 of the sickest to argue for monetary damages in front of an arbiter who will determine an award. Plaintiffs who get cancer also have the right to pursue additional compensation under the deal.

DuPont admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, which caps a 6-year-old case.

DuPont operated the munitions plant in Pompton Lakes -- a working-class town of 10,000 residents -- for nearly a century before shutting it down in 1994.

Residents allege lead, arsenic, mercury and other chemicals leaked from the site into soil and groundwater in the late 1980s. They claim the chemicals gave some people cancer, forced others to have hysterectomies and miscarriages and other ailments ranging from headaches and dizziness to depression.