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Lawsuit: Chemical Plant Caused 3 Neighbors

BY JOANIE LUM
CBS2CHICAGO.COM

(CBS) McCULLOM LAKE, Ill. Three suburban families are in fear for their health, and their cancer concerns have led them to file a lawsuit against a chemical plant.

They all live in far northwest suburban McCullom Lake, about a mile from the plant in Ringwood, near McHenry. As CBS 2’s Joanie Lum reports, members of all three families now have brain cancer.

Bryan Freund was devastated when he learned last year he had brain cancer. Then he learned last year that his two neighbors had developed brain cancer too. With three cancer cases in three consecutive homes, Freund was terrified.

"It’s like having a terrorist bomb inside your head, and someday this thing’s going to blow up and kill me, and I have no idea when, nobody can tell me, and it’s like having a time bomb in your brain," Freund said. "That’s how it makes me feel, you know, inside."

He is part of the lawsuit alleging that the Rohm and Hass Chemical Factory a mile away dumped toxic chemicals on his property for decades; that vinyl chloride, a known human carcinogen, got into the groundwater in the Village of McCollum Lake, near Ringwood. The lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia, where Rohm and Hass is located.

Freund used the well water for 20 years. At age 44, he’s too young to think about mortality.

"Now my life has been shortened," Freund said. "The doctor said usually the best case scenario they give you is you have 10 more years to live… worst case scenario, three months, go in for another checkup, this thing spread and changed and they pick your flowers."

"They're responsible for the contamination, they're responsible for the fact that they didn't clean it up properly and they're responsible for the fact that they didn't warn people," said attorney Aaron Friewald.

Freund added, "I've seen from the EPA and the other sources that there seems to be a pretty good, strong suspicion that there's been a lot of carcinogenic substances dumped, and I feel that there's a pretty strong possibility that they could be responsible for it at least to some degree."

A second lawsuit was filed on behalf of the other residents there, a total of 500 homeowners. It alleges that they are all at risk of illness due to exposure to the carcinogens.

CBS 2 has contacted the Rohm and Haas, and a representative says they are aware of the lawsuit and plan to comment at a later time.

Click here to see video from the April 25, 2006 CBS2Chicago Broadcast News

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