France, March 25 -- Environmental and residents' action groups on Tuesday hailed a decision to charge the steel group ArcelorMittal with pumping toxic fumes into the atmosphere in south-eastern France and attempting to cover up its tracks.

Campaigners have been battling with the company for nearly a decade over the emissions from the ArcelorMittal plant in the industrial port zone of Fos-sur-Mer some 40km north-west of Marseille.

They say emissions contained benzene, lead and cadmium - all classified as carcinogens and mutagens. They claim the plumes of smoke from the plant also contained toxic agents such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide.

Following a report published by the investigative website Mediapart, the Marseille public p...