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Another Cancer Case Added to Group of Suits

BY KEVIN P. CRAVER

A Philadelphia attorney added one plaintiff to, and dropped two defendants from, a year-old group of lawsuits by McCullom Lake brain cancer victims against several Ringwood manufacturers.

Attorney Aaron Freiwald filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Shelby Mazzone, 53, a 25-year McCullom Lake native who underwent surgery nine years ago to remove a nerve tumor from her right inner ear.

Her lawsuit is the 17th filed by cancer victims who accuse the companies of fouling the village’s groundwater with carcinogenic solvents.

And like the other lawsuits in the small town of 400 homes and 1,000 residents, Mazzone has links to other plaintiffs – she was a frequent visitor to the home of one brain cancer victim and once occupied the home of another.

"It is a small community, and that’s one of the things that makes the high number of brain cancers and brain tumors so significant," Freiwald said. "If we were talking about Chicago or Waukegan, this would be a very different situation. We’re talking about a very small population. Let’s not forget we started this case with three next-door neighbors."

The case also started with five defendants, which changed Monday when Freiwald dropped Huntsman Corp. and Huntsman Polyurethanes from the lawsuits. Freiwald said evidence up to this point has not tied the polyurethane business to volatile organic compounds in the groundwater allegedly dumped over decades.

Freiwald said the agreement leaves him the option to re-include them if ties are established between their activities and cancer cases.

"Our position all along was that we neither make nor use the chemicals the plaintiffs’ attorney has alleged are connected with the plaintiffs’ illnesses," Huntsman spokesman Russ Stolle said. "We, of course, are pleased they’ve now agreed to dismiss us from the cases."

The companies’ removal leaves Rohm and Haas, subsidiary Morton International, and Modine Manufacturing Co. as the defendants. Huntsman bought Rohm and Haas’ polyurethane business in 2000.

The suits allege that the manufacturers polluted groundwater for decades and polluted the air with a stripping system meant to clean the groundwater. While the three remaining defendants have acknowledged the contamination, they deny sickening anyone because their studies show the underground chemical plume to be well north of the village and its private wells.

In Mazzone’s case, she underwent surgery in 1998 for a schwannoma, a benign tumor limited only to specific cells in neurons, according to the lawsuit. She since has suffered from constant loud ringing in her right ear and dizziness, Freiwald said.

Mazzone, who moved about 25 years ago to Fort Collins, Colo., could not be contacted Tuesday.

Freiwald said Mazzone had no family history of schwannoma, which could be inherited. Not counting two plaintiffs with pituitary gland tumors, Mazzone’s suit is the first not involving a brain tumor, but Freiwald said the case was relevant nonetheless.

"If we were seeing many, many, many different kinds of cancer – breast, lung, kidney, more commonly reoccurring cancers – then the number of cases would not be as significant. But these are all relating the brain and the central nervous system," Freiwald said. "Vinyl chloride is not picking and choosing – it’s going to cause this one but not that one."

According to the lawsuit, Mazzone grew up baby-sitting and house-sitting for Julianna Mass, 67, who sued in December, the month after being diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive brain cancer. The suit also states that she lived in the former house of fellow plaintiff Judith Weisheit.

Frank Weisheit, Judith’s husband, now lives alone in Ringwood. Judith died Feb. 7 from glioblastoma multiforme. Four total lawsuits have been filed on behalf of deceased residents.

"It had to be. There’s no other reason for it. [Judith] drank water constantly, and this came to pass," he said. "We were married 42½ years."

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