The judges in Paris described the use of chlordecone from 1973-1993 as a scandalous “environmental attack whose human, economic and social consequences affect and will affect for many years the daily life of the inhabitants” of the two French Caribbean islands.The US government banned the pesticide in 1976, a year after the Virginia health department permanently shut down a Life Science Products chemical plant in Hopewell, Va., whose workers developed slurred speech and other neurological problems blamed on the pesticide.However, chlordecone was legally marketed in France from 1981 until the government banned it in 1990, and its use continued for three more years after that in Guadeloupe and Martinique to kill the banana weevil under an exemption granted by the French government.“It is unthinkable that those responsible die without being held accountable," Lèguevaques said, adding that he would urge his clients to appeal the Jan. 2 ruling by the national court for public health disputes.The judges ruled in part that the defendants did not provide specific details to justify “the damage of anxiety they claim.”The legal saga is taking place in Paris instead of the overseas French departments of Guadeloupe or Martinique because it's a public health issue, so it is handled by a special health unit based within the central Paris court."