Welders Preparing For Possible Lawsuits

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Welders Preparing For Possible Lawsuits
Firm: Fumes could have caused illness

By Peter Dujardin
Daily Press

February 27, 2004

NEWPORT NEWS -- A Newport News law firm is investigating whether local shipyard 
welders suffered brain damage from
overexposure to dangerous fumes on the job, gearing up for probable lawsuits 
against companies that make a key piece of
welding equipment.

Patten, Wornom, Hatten & Diamonstein, one of the area's largest firms that 
handles workplace injury cases, is testing
more than 1,000 past and current welders employed by local shipyards and other 
businesses for symptoms of excessive
exposure to the fumes.

The firm is preparing to make claims in local courts that makers of welding 
rods - which melt during the fusion process
- concealed the danger of manganese fumes. The firm plans to assert that the 
companies did not adequately warn welders
to use proper ventilation when using the product.

"These cases will revolve around what the industry knew, and what they did with 
that knowledge," said H. Duncan Garnett
Jr., an attorney with Patten, Wornom, Hatten & Diamonstein.

The law firm, known for its involvement in cases against asbestos companies, 
bought an advertisement in the January
issue of The Voyager, the newsletter for the Local 8888 of the United 
Steelworkers of America.

The union represents hourly workers, including welders, at the Northrop Grumman 
Newport News shipyard.

In the ad, welders and those who have worked around welding fumes are asked to 
call the law firm if they have any of a
host of physical ailments, such as slurred speech, loss of balance, tremors, 
and other Parkinson's-like symptoms.

The law office also spread word of the potential litigation to Local 540 of the 
Plumbers & Steamfitters Union and other
unions, inviting current and former welders to get tested. Nine doctors were 
flown to Newport News from Texas by the
firm in recent weeks to conduct preliminary tests on more than 1,000 workers.

If further testing reveals manganese overexposure, the firm plans to sue on 
behalf of the workers.

Gaining nationwide attention

Lawsuits against makers of welding rods have gained more attention since 
October, when an Illinois jury awarded $1
million to a 65-year-old welder who sued three manufacturers.

Prior to that case, which has been appealed, this kind of litigation largely 
had been unsuccessful. But the October
verdict has spurred hundreds of similar cases nationwide.

But an attorney representing 14 different welding rod makers - including the 
big three of Lincoln Electric, in
Cleveland; Hobart Brothers, in Troy, Ohio; and Airco, a division of British 
Oxygen Corp. in London - said the suits
have no basis.

He termed the Illinois case "an aberration," a product of having been tried in 
what he said was one of the most
plaintiff-friendly counties in the country, Madison County, Ill.

"No evidence that we have seen indicates that welding rods used in ordinary 
welding circumstances can cause
neurological damage," said Charles Read, with the New York firm of O'Melveny & 
Myers. "This process didn't start with
doctors, it started with lawyers, who have distributed advertisements urging 
people to be tested. But they are mistaken
if they think welding fume litigation is their next big windfall."

Welding, the process of fusing metal parts, is heavily used in manufacturing 
everything from ships to cars to planes to
construction equipment.

Manganese, a component of some welding rods, helps strengthen the fused metals. 
The lawsuits claim that because of
inadequate warnings from welding rod makers, welders didn't always use adequate 
ventilation in their workspaces - like
a personal respirator or piped ventilation. The suits allege welders breathed 
in the manganese fumes, which then
traveled to the brain causing damage.

There's no scientific consensus about whether welding rods can lead to 
overexposure. Some scientists say other
occupations, such as mining, can result in significant manganese poisoning.

But with welding rods, some scientists, such as Brad Racette, a researcher at 
Washington University in St. Louis, say
there's a possible connection between manganese fumes overexposure from welding 
and brain injury. But others claim no
link has been established.

Before the breakthrough in the Illinois case, about 10 lawsuits against welding 
companies had failed in recent years.

Building the case

The results of the testing in Newport News is now being analyzed by the Texas 
doctors, who will decide which workers
move on to a second stage and undergo more extensive testing by a neurologist. 
Garnett, of Patten, Wornom, Hatten &
Diamonstein, would not say how many workers he thinks that will be, and he 
would not estimate how many suits his firm
plans to file.

A Norfolk law firm, Glasser & Glasser, is preparing to handle cases for many of 
the workers at shipyards and other
businesses in South Hampton Roads. It plans to test more than 700 people - and 
possibly more - within the next few
months, said Bill Monroe, an attorney with that firm.

Patten, Wornom, Hatten and Diamonstein, which has handled thousands of 
asbestos-related lawsuits involving workers in
Hampton Roads, has been working for more than a year on the welding issue with 
Ranier, Gayle and Elliot, a law firm in
Lake Charles, La.

That Gulf Coast company has about 250 cases, representing about 5,000 to 6,000 
workers, pending against big makers of
welding rods on behalf of welders in Louisiana and Mississippi. The firm tested 
about 20,000 workers.

The lawsuits under way in Louisiana do not name the shipyards as defendants in 
the suit, and the suits in Newport News
won't do so either, Garnett said. Brett Powers, an attorney handling the 
litigation for Rainer, Gayle and Elliot,
asserted that welding rod manufacturers were deceptive to the workers, to 
shipyards and to other companies that bought
the rods.

"The shipyards are almost like a co-victim on these cases," Powers said. "We 
have plenty of documents that show that
sophisticated employers inquired to the welding rod industry about safety, and 
the industry misled them. They said it's
safe and it's nothing to worry about. Not only did the welders not know of the 
hazards, the welders' bosses didn't know
either."

The Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard did not comment on whether it agrees 
with the law firms that say warning
labels on the welding rods were inadequate. The shipyard also would not 
identify the processes it uses to make sure its
welders are safe from fumes.

But the Newport News shipyard did say it has "not been made aware of any 
employee injuries related to fumes from
welding rods."

"We are dedicated to maintaining a safe workplace and use engineering controls, 
personal protective equipment and other
methods to ensure the safety of our employees in all of our operations, to 
include welding," company spokeswoman Jerri
Fuller Dickseski said in a statement.

Alton H. Glass Sr., president of Local 8888 of the Steelworkers Union and a 
former shipyard welder, said he doesn't
know of any cases in which workers have suffered brain damage from inhaling too 
much manganese, but he supports testing
to check for overexposure.

Peter Dujardin can be reached at 247-4749 or by e-mail at 
pdujardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SOURCE: Hampton Roads Daily Press, VA


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