TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge is allowing families
whose children have been among dozens sickened in a northern Ohio cancer
cluster to move forward with a lawsuit against Whirlpool Corp. after
dismissing some of the claims.
The families believe smokestacks
from Whirlpool’s huge washing machine plant in Clyde sent a chemical
compound suspected of causing cancer into the neighborhoods of several
children who were among the first diagnosed.
Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Mich., has maintained that there is no scientific or medical fact to
back up the allegations.
U.S.
District Judge James Carr on Monday dismissed allegations of reckless
conduct and fraud against Whirlpool along with claims that the cancer
cluster hurt property values around the factory.
He did allow the lawsuit’s claims of personal injury and wrongful death to stand.
Nearly
40 young people in a rural area between Toledo and Cleveland have been
diagnosed with various types of cancer since the mid-1990s. The
diagnoses peaked in 2006, when nine children were told they had cancer.
Attorneys
for the families said in a statement that the judge’s ruling will force
Whirlpool to give them information that the company had been reluctant
to release.
"It is one small step in the search for the truth," said attorney Chuck Boyk.
Whirlpool
said in a statement that it was pleased most of the claims in the
lawsuit had been dismissed. The company said in November that soil tests
showed no evidence of illegal dumping or widespread contamination at a
now-closed park where the lawsuit claimed the company dumped potentially
cancer-causing waste.
The families’ lawsuit also said that a
compound called benzaldehyde came from Whirlpool’s smokestacks. The
families’ attorneys have said that more research is needed on the
chemical compound, which is used as a solvent in painting and porcelain
coating.
Ohio health and environmental investigators have spent
years testing the air and water around Clyde and talking with the
children and their families about where they live and work and what they
might have been exposed to. But they’ve never come up with answer.
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