FUMES IN THE FACTORY

...One of them, for example—he's about thirty now-worked at GTE from 1975 to 1980 as a materials handler...

...She had to take medical leave from work...

...She owed more than $70,000 in medical bills...

...Her supervisors were apparently impressed...

...But I was always getting sick to my stomach and getting sinus headaches...

...She is fatigued and depressed, unable to work...

...Levin contends that certain chemicals can damage the immune system and lead to any number of symptoms and diseases, including cancer, depending on the levels and route of exposure (such as skin contact or respiration) of the individual to the chemicals, his genetic susceptibilities, and his general state of health...

...One inspection, prompted by a complaint, resulted in a fine of $1,000 for violation of an OSHA standard: failure to provide appropriate protective equipment to workers who had contact with an epoxy resin known since the 1960s to cause severe dermatitis and lifelong sensitization to similar products...

...Heffren developed pain in her limbs and a rash on her skin...

...He became accident prone and several times became wedged between drums of chemicals...

...In any event, the union seems to have done absolutely nothing about the problem...

...I'm sure these physicians, many of whom had told the women that their complaints were psychosomatic, were afraid of malpractice suits...

...Now he can't do simple things like counting backwards and taking off his shoes when asked to do so," she said...

...The employer decided to settle, Martinez says, "for economic reasons," including "cost of the litigation, the fact that some risk [of losing the suits] was involved, and the fact that the trial would have taken six months to a year in court...

...Dr...

...And the early radiologists used to focus their cameras by taking pictures of their hands...

...Now Heffren lives mostly on Social Security disability payments and is classified as permanently disabled because of ailments that also afflict a remarkable number of her former co-workers...

...As a group, they were not litigious people...

...With other members of a UCSF occupational medicine team, he examined six of the patients, looking especially for neurological symptoms...

...Foreign researchers, too, have reported on health problems-including cancer, mood changes, memory disturbances, depression, dizziness, and fatigue—among workers exposed to trichloroethylene...

...That suit charges that the companies knew how dangerous their products were, singly and in combination with other chemicals, but failed to advise the plaintiffs and the plaintiffs' employer about safety precautions...

...It's been forty years or so," said Levin, "since we started using all these mixed chemicals in industry, and the toxicity of many is well known, having been documented in the Scandinavian and Asian literature for years...

...Ultimately, he defined her condition as an aberrant type of multiple sclerosis (MS...

...We didn't have any protection...

...We could look up and see Freon and other fumes mixing in the air above us...

...On one job they gave me a shield to put in front of me, but that didn't stop the fumes...

...In any event, Rohr and the company's lawyers reached an out-of-court settlement last June on 118 workers' compensation cases...

...The defendants in that suit are some of the largest companies in the country—Dow Chemical, Dow Corning, Devcon, Eastman Kodak, DuPont, Shell Oil, and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing...

...Some can no longer think clearly...

...She was laid off the day after she returned because "business was slow"—she was earning a little more than $13,000 a year, plus overtime...

...Two of us had to spray them with a special solution in the wet room [a room where excess chemicals dripped into a pit below the floor...

...they made no correlations between the incidence of lymphoreticular cancers and their exposure to ionizing radiation...

...At GTE Lenkurt they had been exposed to dozens, perhaps hundreds, of potentially toxic chemicals, including chlorine gas, epoxy resins, such solvents as xylene and toluene, PCBs, trichloroethylene, and tetrachloroethylene...

...Yolanda Lozano, who worked in several departments winding and waxing transformers and helping to assemble PC boards, had to use epoxies, resins, glues, solvents, and other chemicals...

...When Rohr began to develop workers' compensation suits in behalf of some of the women, she found it extraordinarily difficult to obtain information from physicians who had examined them...

...Cordova was thirty-seven years old and seriously ill with ovarian cancer...

...Many of OSHA's standards are out of date, Rogers concedes, "but it's difficult to fight all the chemical manufacturers...

...Yet many of the women were suffering neurological problems, including difficulty in controlling their bladders and bowels, or severe and irregular menstrual bleeding...

...They manufactured the chemicals used in the GTE plants...

...We used to have watch dials painted with radium...

...Since few workers related their health problems to their working conditions, their union—Local 2112 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers—apparently did not receive many complaints...

...Two other inspections found no evidence of violations...

...she said it affected the action of the Freon...

...Sometimes later she can't even walk back into her house...

...Quite a few have difficulty controlling their bowels or bladders...

...Joseph LaDou, an occupational health specialist in California, found a similar disparity for the years 1980-1984...

...The terms of the settlement remain under wraps, according to Martinez, because "it is in everybody's interest to put the case behind them...

...Many employees paid weekly visits to the factory's health clinic, where their complaints were duly recorded, Lozano said, but Usually dismissed with a dose of aspirin or sinus medication...

...At times, Rohr, who obtained her law degree in 1982 at the age of forty, had so little money that she had to borrow from her children's school funds...

...Many substances were used in the plant, Martinez adds, and workers' exposure to them varied considerably...

...It was like a conspiracy of silence," Rohr said...

...Moreover, when GTE sent plaintiffs to local board-certified internists for examinations, "some of their claims of illness or their symptoms were not substantiated...

...Some get a "twilight zone" feeling, in which their heads seem separate from their bodies...

...But the battle is far from over...

...Like most of her co-workers, Sena did not associate her health problems with her work...

...He concluded that further testing should be done on»"at least three" of the patients who had similar complaints of headaches, weakness, numbness, dizziness, and short-term loss of memory...

...Attorney Rohr heard accounts of GTE Lenkurt's "progressive [assembly] line," which had to be brought to a halt if a worker went to the bathroom at a time other than the scheduled ten-minute break...

...She said she now suffers from high blood pressure, headaches, memory loss, accelerated tooth decay, and numbness...

...Alan Levin has been called as an expert medical witness in several suits against major chemical companies accused of subjecting their employees or the environment to dangerous pollution...

...We cross-trained in a number of jobs...

...Her memory is poor...

...Levin, the expert witness, "possibly because they were more likely to have jobs that involved taking drums of chemicals and pouring them into vats...

...Their lives have been destroyed...

...The lawyer was astonished to learn that "all the girls" meant about thirty women...

...At one point," said her friend Maxine, "she would have a coughing spell and just pass out...

...There was never any protection from the chemicals...

...Rohr cited the case of one man who had worked as an accountant before taking a job at the factory to earn more money...

...It took him twelve hours to do it, and he had to be reminded by the manager to finish the job...

...He is a controversial -figure, and one lawyer recalls attending a seminar in which ways to discredit Levin's testimony were discussed...

...I remember building special bins for the boards...

...When I got a skin rash," she said, "I thought it was the heat...

...Martinez insists that only once—when inspectors from the state's Occupational Safety and Health Administration imposed a fine—was the company negligent, and that was for not insisting that employees use and wear available protective equipment, including gloves, aprons, and skin-barrier creams, mostly when using epoxy resins...

...A neurologist first attributed her symptoms to a brain tumor or stroke, but there was no evidence to support either diagnosis...

...Then I became a materials handler of parts and chemicals for the line...

...She has lost four or five teeth...

...Oddly enough, the first plaintiff against GTE Lenkurt, Amy Cordova, sought out Rohr not to file suit against the company but to find a way of saving her house, which was about to be seized by creditors...

...Occasionally, a shift change was ordered...

...One was Mary Sena, forty, a divorced w e could look up and see Freon and other fumes mixing in the air,' recalls one worker...

...I got along real well with most of the administrators...

...Each of the workers' symptom complexes has been linked with any number of the chemicals to which these people were exposed...

...It was difficult to get started...

...No scientific study has been carried out that could duplicate the type of exposure—to combinations of chemicals—these people had...

...In support of his views, Levin cites the formerly underestimated dangers of radiation...

...Over coffee and doughnuts at her dining table, she told me how much she enjoyed her factory job: "I liked working with a lot of people and learning something new in the electronics industry...

...Therefore, any worker might be exposed to the chemicals—and to combinations of chemicals—used in twenty departments...

...The role of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is also problematic...

...The company's lawyer, Carlos Martinez, says that "unless the records were sealed, certain information detrimental to either side could emerge, out of context, that would be damaging...

...In a plant like this, the dilution rate was so vast that you would need constant decomposition of a chemical to get a detectable increase in the products you're sampling for...

...A gag order has been imposed, and neither attorneys nor plaintiffs can discuss the workers' compensation cases...

...Carlos Martinez, an Albuquerque lawyer who represents GTE Lenkurt, says many of the workers who sued had "preexisting illnesses or—for example, in the case of some of the women—had a history of miscarriages or perhaps a family history of cancer...

...in cardiovascular disease with signs of early cardiovascular aging, such as arteriovenous anomalies [malformations of the blood vessels] and changes in the fundi [the back portion of the eyeball's interior]—which have been reported with halogens and hydrocarbons, by the way, which were used at the plant—and in thyroiditis [inflammation of the thyroid gland...

...I poured chemicals like Freon into cans...

...About five years ago, Sena underwent a hysterectomy because of uterine cancer...

...Furthermore, the law firm where Rohr worked did not want to take the cases, and she had to quit her job to proceed...

...After four warnings, she was fired...

...I worked in shipping...

...Most of the men who still can work have menial jobs," she added...

...At the time Lozano went to work at GTE in 1979, safety glasses were issued to workers in some jobs, Lozano said, and in 1982-1983 those who worked with Freon were given gloves...

...Carlos Martinez, the company's attorney, says the employer's position has always been that the workers "were not harmed by working with the chemicals...

...They had gone to work to earn extra money, according to Rohr...

...Women using solvents have been reported to experience menstrual irregularities...

...Furthermore, Rohr learned from a former maintenance engineer and others that the plant had a "high-vacuum design" to keep chemical fumes and dust head-high so that they would not settle on the PC boards...

...LaDou believes that recirculation of air "containing a variety of solvent vapors and fumes may contribute to workers' symptoms...

...The out-of-court settlement reached last June, after what Rohr called "various delaying tactics" on the part of GTE Lenkurt, covers direct cash compensation of the clients, funds for their medical care, and Rohr's fees...

...As she described her plight to Rohr, Cordova (who died of cancer in 1985) mentioned that "all the girls I work with have lost their uteruses...

...But no such strictures apply to the product liability case that has been filed in Texas against the seven major chemical manufacturers...

...she said it affected the action of the Freon.' mother of two who worked at the plant from 1975 to 1986, ending with earnings of about $ 15,000 a year...

...When she worked on the "touch-up line," she recalled, she asked for a fan "because smoke was blowing into our faces and we were having sinus problems and tears were running down our faces...

...The last three chemicals are regarded as potential human carcinogens by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH...

...On October 1, Rohr and a group of Texas lawyers filed a huge product-liability lawsuit on behalf of 210 former GTE employees—205 who worked at the Albuquerque plant and five who worked at a GTE telecommunications plant near Dallas and developed cancer...

...The pre-employment physical examinations given the workers were "not always detailed—for example, did not always include chest x-rays," Martinez adds...

...Among former employees of GTE Lenkurt, a number have similar MS symptoms...

...The move was attributed to economic considerations...

...The amount and terms of the settlement remain secret...

...These workers had been exposed to quite a number of toxic chemicals, including many solvents," Harrison said...

...You could see the deterioration in his personnel file...

...Taking each case separately, Rohr began in October 1984 to file lawsuits against the company and its insurer for occupational-disease disablement resulting from exposure to toxic chemicals in the workplace...

...Levin was an expert medical witness hired by Josephine Rohr, an Albuquerque lawyer who represents many GTE Lenkurt workers...

...No one has proved Levin wrong, but there is no body of widely accepted evidence proving he is right...

...But the chemicals, he says, "aren't dangerous per se, only when they are improperly used, and the company provided adequate ventilation, protective clothing and equipment, and proper safety procedures...

...it would be very difficult to do so...

...No trial date has yet been set, but one lawyer estimates that it will be "a billion-dollar lawsuit...

...In 1983, GTE Lenkurt began moving the unskilled assembly portions of its plant—including all the departments involved in the lawsuits—to Juarez, Mexico...

...They set her to a variety of tasks—trying out new processes, carrying out special procedures...

...The disease has a low incidence among Hispanic women in New Mexico...

...But after a while, Heffren began succumbing to frequent illnesses—pneumonia a couple of times a year, dizziness, nausea, labored breathing...

...go clear out from under her," said Hef-fren's close friend, Maxine...

...I did soldering, waxing of boards," Sena said...

...The plant now employs only a few hundred persons to inspect the parts made in Mexico...

...What some people fail to realize," says Sam Rogers, chief of New Mexico's Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, "is that we look at things in black and white terms...

...It took a long time to understand the dangers of radiation, and the acceptable levels have been going down every year...

...Eventually, she said, her right side became paralyzed and numb...

...And six years ago, we were not seeing the symptoms that people are reporting today, such as the neuropathies...

...She worked "all over the place," as she put it, at the former GTE Lenkurt telecommunications assembly and manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico...

...Heffren, a forty-five-year-old divorced mother of three, had never worked in a factory before she took the job at GTE Lenkurt, now owned by Siemens USA...

...I was the recreation director for the plant...

...Most of Rohr's plaintiffs came from three departments, but all of the plant's operations were carried out in one hug£ room served by a single air-conditioning and heating system...

...Their complaints were consistent with those of other patients I have seen who worked in Silicon Valley plants and were exposed to solvents and gases, many of whom had permanent neurological and central-nervous-system problems...

...We could have spent a year sampling the air in GTE Lenkurt...

...But she persevered, and ultimately filed suit for about 100 women and fifteen men...

...Robert Harrison, director of the occupational medicine clinic at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, served as a consultant to Josephine Rohr in the workers' compensation suits early on...

...Management, engineers, and clerical personnel were in a separate area that had its own ventilation system...

...sometimes, she said, she can't recall whether or not she has eaten or whether she has already paid a particular bill...

...Many suffer from headaches, short-term memory loss, blackouts, "ghosts" in their peripheral vision, dizziness, numbness, and paralysis...

...was soldering pieces onto the PC [printed circuit] boards on the assembly line...

...From 1973 to 1978, the Federal OSHA issued a number of citations against GTE Lenkurt for such violations as failure to provide emergency showers and adequate protective clothes for employees working with corrosive acids...

...Few used alcohol or other drugs...

...If a woman made three unscheduled bathroom trips a week, she received a warning...

...Recently, he had a job cleaning a theater...

...We got a small fan, but the supervisor took it away...

...Worker safety in the entire microelectronics industry is at issue in the GTE case...

...Many of these people are badly impaired," said Dr...

...He became paranoid and discourteous...

...The men tended to be worse off than the women," said Dr...

...In 1980, jurisdiction passed from the Federal agency to state health and safety inspectors...

...Two-thirds of the plaintiffs are Hispanic...

...We got a small fan to put under the table, but the supervisor took it away...

...A 1980 survey by the California Division of Labor Statistics and Research showed that the rate of occupational illness in a closely related field, the semiconductor industry, was more than three times the rate in general manufacturing...

...My first job," she recalled, Gail McBride, a free-lance writer based in Chicago, specializes in coverage of science and medicine...

...Lozano took medical leave from GTE in 1984 for cancer treatment...

...I helped build transformers...

...To head off the risk of dismissal, some urinated or defecated at their work stations or bled through their clothes...

...In addition to the neurological problems experienced by many former GTE Lenkurt employees, Levin explained, exposure on the job resulted in "a marked increase in various disorders and cancers of the female reproductive tract...

...Now Heffren takes steroids to relieve her respiratory condition and "MS...

...Alan Levin, an allergist-immunologist with the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine...

...Though chemical fumes were constantly in the air, it never occurred to Heffren or to most of her co-workers that they might be handling toxic substances...

...She'll be walking around a store and all of a sudden she'll be on the floor because her legs just...

...Now we know how dangerous those were...

...One attorney who saw some of them was reduced to tears...

...Finally, he hit his supervisor and lost his job...

...But they were well before and sick afterward, and they all have one or more of several different symptom complexes, and there's no other explanation...

...She had owned two restaurants in Albuquerque and had been an executive secretary in New York City...

...We used to use x-ray fluoroscopy to see if our shoes fit...

...Eventually, employees who "glazed" the PC boards with plastic coating were given paper "bunny suits" and lint masks...

...She died in 1987, at the age of forty-one, of widespread malignant melanoma, leaving a husband and two children...

...I'd organize parties for 5,000 people...

...The same thing will be true for toxic chemicals...

...Largely unknown, he added, and emphasized by a study done by Brook-haven National Laboratory under contract to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, are the possible synergistic effects of certain chemicals when combined with other toxic materials...

...As for the Hispanic women, most were married and had children...