in a significant development in the fight against air pollution, a group of 14 Japanese companies have agreed to pay us $27.2 million to 438 people who were suffering from illnesses related to air pollution. The companies accepted an out-of-court settlement, terminating a 14-year-old dispute. The first suit in the protracted legal battle was filed in 1982, with petitioners demanding damages worth us $81.6 million from 14 companies in Kawasaki, a major industrial city near Tokyo. Of the people who had originally filed the suits, 138 have already died, some due to air pollution-related illnesses. In 1994, the district court of Yokohama had charged the companies with polluting the air and ordered them to pay us $4 million in compensation to the plaintiffs. However, the case was extended after both parties filed an appeal in a higher court.
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