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Four New Cancer Suits Filed

By KEVIN P. CRAVER
kcraver@nwherald.com

Attorney Aaron Freiwald said four new lawsuits that he filed Tuesday against five Ringwood manufacturers erased all doubts that their polluted groundwater was not responsible for making his clients sick.

But McHenry County health officials received a letter from the Illinois Department of Public Health the same day that they said vindicated their position that the pollution was not the cause.

"I think there are two significant things about these new cases," Freiwald said. "One, it’s that much harder to prove it’s a coincidence, and secondly, and very sadly, there are people being diagnosed with brain tumors and brain cancers right now. This is not a footnote in history. It’s happening today, and it’s an ongoing problem."

However, an Oct. 6 letter from the state health department states that the county’s well-testing results, as well as maps of the plume of volatile organic compounds released in the groundwater by the manufacturers, shows pollution never reached McCullom Lake or its wells.

Only one of the nine wells sampled by the county earlier this year tested positive for contaminants, and the level was well below federal standards.

"That’s been our feeling based on science," county health Administrator Patrick McNulty said. "The groundwater from those facilities has not been the issue."

Tuesday’s lawsuits, filed in a Philadelphia court, brings to 12 the number of plaintiffs alleging that their cancers were caused by volatile organic compounds from a landfill and from accidental spills since the 1960s. The plaintiffs contend that the chemicals moved more than a mile from the Ringwood manufacturing sites into water that residents cooked with, bathed in and drank. They also accuse the companies of shooting contaminants into the air through an air-stripping system installed to remove the compounds from groundwater.

Rohm and Haas Chemicals, Morton International, Huntsman, Huntsman Polyurethanes and Modine Manufacturing Co. are defendants in the lawsuits, as well as a class-action lawsuit filed in April on behalf of current and former McCullom Lake residents.

Rohm and Haas has drilled monitoring wells to track the pollution since the 1980s, and later installed the air-stripping system to remove it. While the company acknowledges the pollution, it vehemently denies responsibility for the illnesses because their maps show the plume of contaminants is well north of the village.

"Our position remains as it was before, that we’re saddened to hear of anyone who has brain cancer, but we see no connection with operations past or present at the Ringwood facility," Rohm and Haas spokesman Syd Havely said.

All four of the new plaintiffs were diagnosed with brain cancer within the past 12 months, and one of them died last October. Two grew up in or near McCullom Lake, one has lived there for 20 years, and a fourth has lived there for six. All but one of the 12 plaintiffs have been diagnosed since 2004. The plaintiffs either could not be reached or declined comment Tuesday.

Freiwald said the letter from the state health department does not clear the companies. He said he did not trust the map of the plume because monitoring wells were drilled to follow the groundwater flow and not near the village. Furthermore, the fact that one well tested positive for trichloroethane – which does not occur in nature – shows that the solvents indeed could get into the water supply.

"There’s no question that the fact of there being this chemical today suggests that other chemicals got to these wells five, 10, 20 years ago," Freiwald said. "For us, the significance of this positive well test is that it shows a pathway for this contamination that happened years ago. Brain cancer has a long latency period, and exposure from 10, 20, 30 years ago is producing brain cancer today."

New plaintiffs

The four new plaintiffs in the lawsuit against five Ringwood manufacturers brings to 12 the number of plaintiffs. The latest to file suit are:

– Nichole Baird, 36, of McCullom Lake. The 6-year resident was diagnosed with two tumors on her pituitary gland earlier this year.

– The estate of Patrick Kane, who died of brain cancer last October at age 52. Kane grew up in McCullom Lake and also was diagnosed with a pituitary gland tumor as a child.

– Robert Nelson, 48, of San Jose, Calif. Nelson grew up in and near McCullom Lake for 18 years, and was diagnosed in October 2005 with a pituitary gland tumor.

– John C. Stepp, 54, a 20-year resident of McCullom Lake, had brain surgery on Sept. 3 that revealed he had glioblastoma multiforme cancer.

Brain cancer in the lawsuits

– Glioblastoma multiforme makes up 30 percent of primary brain tumors, is malignant and very difficult to treat, and often fatal. It is the most common type of brain tumor.

– Oligodendroglioma is rarer, making up about 4 percent of primary brain tumors. It appears in a brain hemisphere and can be present for many years before diagnosis. It is very treatable and survivability is high.
– Hemangioblastoma is even more rare, making up about 2 percent of primary brain tumors. However, the disease is benign and does not metastasize. It arises from blood vessels, usually in the cerebellum.


The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of NWHerald.com or Shaw Newspapers.

MC Lake wrote on October 11, 2006 6:54 PM:"Hey - I lived there for 6 years and got thyroid cancer, what about me?"

former McCullum Lake resident wrote on October 11, 2006 9:48 PM:"It's hard to believe that this is all happening. I am surprised that the village hasn't been shut down and complimentary relocations haven't been provided. If there are this many cases, it would save face with these companies to help relocate people despite the law suits. There is a right thing to do, a wrong thing to do, and the corporate way. If these companies choose to play that way, we can choose not to give them our money as consumers. I for one will make the effort to research these companies and their services, partners and such and choose not to fund them through consumerism. Is anyone else with me? Should this be a seperate article from the NorthWest Herald? I hope so. Big Businesses have the ability to be profitable by being reliable and trustworthy. There are reasons why companies like Rohm and Hass are suspected of wrong doings."

another former resident wrote on October 12, 2006 11:42 PM:"I don't understand why we have federal standards of a value greater than 0 for cancer causing compounds that are man made. To me if something is cancer causing and is man made, it should stop being created and the use of existing cancer causing compounds should be illegal and it's creator should be required to provide an alternative replacement. It's one thing to give people the freedom to ruin their own health, but putting others at risk is wrong. Basic common sense and logic."

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