Another lawsuit accuses Mallinckrodt of dumping nuclear waste, causing cancers
The latest of 28 related federal lawsuits filed against Mallinckrodt alleges that people exposed to a predecessor company’s radioactive waste sites in north St. Louis County became sick with cancers and sometimes died from them.
Mallinckrodt in the 1940s and 1950s transported radioactive materials from its downtown St. Louis facility to a 22-acre site north of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, according to the Sept. 5 suit, which names eight plaintiffs.
The areas around haul routes, including Coldwater Creek, which runs from St. Ann to the Missouri River, were contaminated, according to the suit.
The suit says two of the plaintiffs who worked near the waste sites — William Frazier and Harold Banovz, both former McDonnell Douglas Corp. employees — contracted cancer and died. They are suing through relatives.
The other plaintiffs — Maureen Kolkmeyer, William Fatherton, Eric Kluempers, Bruce Calvin, Stephen Kofron and Kurt Zwilling — either lived or worked in the affected areas and have been diagnosed with cancer, according to the suit.
The suit also names as a defendant Cotter Corp., which it says transported radioactive waste in the 1960s to a property at 9200 Latty Ave.
Kenneth Brennan of Torhoerman Law LLC, Collinsville, Illinois, has filed the more than two dozen related lawsuits representing about 150 plaintiffs. The first came in February 2012. None have settled.
“The damages are significant,” Brennan said. “Virtually all involve people who are alleging cancer and/or death.”
Nearly all of those cases have been consolidated, and continue to be heard before U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig.
A Mallinckrodt spokeswoman said the company would not comment.
Mallinckrodt has gone through many ownership and name changes since it was founded in the 19th Century.
No comments:
Post a Comment