The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that Dow Chemical must produce witnesses to testify about alleged scientific irregularities in epidemiology studies the company sponsored to look at links between vinyl chloride and brain cancer.

In an April 10, 2012 decision, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of Rohm and Haas, now a subsidiary of Dow, which means the opinion of the Superior Court (Pennsylvania’s intermediate appellate court) stands.

And that means Dow and Rohm and Haas have lost their challenge to a court order compelling Dow to make available certain witnesses to answer questions about whether Dow concealed from epidemiology researchers evidence of workers who had been exposed to vinyl chloride and who later were diagnosed with brain cancer. The reason Dow allegedly concealed such evidence: To weaken the scientific links between vinyl chloride, a key ingredient in the making of plastic, and brain cancer.

Photo by Northwest Herald

That’s what Donna Gates recently told Northwest Herald (McHenry,Illinois) news reporter, Kevin Craver, when summing up her experience as named plaintiff in theMcCullomLakebrain cancer cluster class action.

The case alleged that decades of chemical waste contamination had created a heightened risk of brain tumors among residents of a small, lakeside community in Northern Illinois,McCullomLake. The case was filed in 2006 after three former next-door neighbors were diagnosed with primary, malignant brain cancers within one year of one another. After the case was filed, along with individual actions on behalf of the three brain tumor victims, other individuals who had been diagnosed with brain tumors came forward. In the months following, still others were diagnosed as well.

Glenn and Donna Gates, longtime residents ofMcCullomLake, agreed to serve as the named plaintiffs in a class action seeking funds to provide for medical screening of residents and to alleviate diminished property values in the neighborhood.