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Residents of a New Plymouth neighbourhood are holding a public meeting to highlight their concerns and demand a wider inquiry into their "valley of death".
For years people living around the Ivon Watkins DOW chemical plant in New Plymouth have complained of poor health, but subsequent Government inquiries have found no link.
Dioxin is a by-product of the herbicide 245-T which for years was manufactured at the plant.
Now the Minister of Health has announced that blood tests will be conducted on up to 100 residents who may have been exposed to chemicals.
But local campaigners say it is too little too late.
The effect of toxins from the plant has concerned locals since the early 1970s.
Investigations by the then health department found no dangerous levels of contamination and the company has always maintained there was no problem.
Green Party spokeswoman Sue Kedgley wants an independent inquiry to examine whether residents suffered harmful effects from toxic chemicals.
Kedgley says while the tests are a step in the right direction they do not go far enough. She says blood tests are a crude way to test for dioxin levels and additional tests will also be needed.
However, she says the decision to take blood tests is a sign the Government is finally recognising there is a serious health problem in New Plymouth.
Local resident Andrew Gibbs from the Dioxin Investigation Network says the group is pleased that the Ministry is taking some action.
However, he wants a full inquiry as he says there are high levels of serious illness such as multiple sclerosis among people who live near the former chemical plant.
Gibbs says people living near the former chemical plant have also developed cancer and children have been born with birth defects.
Ian McLeod says he buried drums of DOW's waste at a public landfill and he says there are other sites dotted over the city where he and other contractors left the material.
McLeod served in Vietnam where he says he was sprayed three times with Agent Orange.
He says he does not know what he was dumping for DOW but 'it had a very similar smell to what was dumped on us in Vietnam'.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Annette King gave the go-ahead for her staff to work with the Taranaki District Health Board to review statistics on cancer rates in New Plymouth and to test residents' blood.
This comes despite a Government inquiry in 1986 that found there was no risk.
"Their knowledge in 1986 about 245-T and dioxin was less than they have now," says King. "I don't know what will come out of the blood tests but I've committed myself to them."
King says the tests are part of a combined effort with the Taranaki Regional Council and the Ministry for the Environment to find out as much as possible about the site and to allay the fears of residents.
She says testing will include people who lived in the vicinity but may have moved away.
DOW AgroSciences, which operated the factory in the 1960s, has welcomed the investigation. It declined to be interviewed by One News but did release a four paragraph statement in which it said it welcomes the decision to carry out the tests.
It says it will fully co-operate with any Government study.
