Worker's suit over health woes heads to trial

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/8067080.htm?1c

Feb. 29, 2004

Worker's suit over health woes heads to trialPopcorn plant case is first of 30By STEVE ROCKThe Kansas City Star

“No amount of money could ever buy back what I've lost.” Redman

Nearly three dozen former and current workers at a Jasper, Mo., popcorn plant have been waiting years for this week to arrive.

With millions of dollars potentially hanging in the balance, the first of 30 civil lawsuits against a New York-based manufacturer of butter flavoring is scheduled to go to trial Monday in Joplin, Mo.

“I'd just like to finally get it over with,” said Redman, one of the plaintiffs. “It's not much fun to go through this every day.”

At the heart of the case is the Gilster- Lee microwave popcorn plant, where each of the plaintiffs worked sometime between 1994 and now. The plaintiffs, all of whom are suffering from damaged airways and breathing problems, argue that their illnesses were caused by exposure to chemicals in the popcorn's butter flavoring. They also contend that the manufacturer “failed to give instructions on safe use of the products.”

The defendant is International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., which makes the butter flavoring, and Bush Boake Inc.

International purchased Bush Boake in November 2000.

In court papers and previously released prepared statements, International denied culpability and contended that its product was safe if used properly.

Company officials declined to comment last week.

Sources close to the case say plaintiffs are seeking actual and punitive damages in excess of $50 million.

“No amount of money could ever buy back what I've lost,” Redman said.

For Redman, every day is a challenge. With her airways ravaged, she is on a lung-transplant waiting list. She takes about 12 medications a day; some help with her breathing problems, others battle high blood pressure and deteriorating bones.

The few times she has the energy to leave her Joplin home, she has no choice but to lug along an oxygen tank.

“I used to be able to do anything I wanted,” said Redman, 55. “Not anymore.”

Most of the plaintiffs, like Redman, will never work again. More than a dozen are what one attorney called “permanently and totally disabled.”

Redman and others were gasping for air — some were diagnosed with asthma, others with walking pneumonia, emphysema or hay fever or bronchitis — when they enlisted the help of a lawyer in late 1999. What followed was a dizzying array of tests, analyses by medical professionals, investigations by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the assistance of more lawyers and, finally, some answers.

At least six of the workers were suffering from bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare disease often caused by exposure to toxic fumes. It causes inflammation and scarring, which narrows the airways that enable people to breathe. The condition is irreversible.

Health officials eventually found that most of the problems could be traced to the mixing room at the plant. There, large amounts of butter flavoring were mixed with soybean oil, salt and coloring agents in huge tanks. Employees identified as “mixers” were responsible for pouring in the concoction and monitoring its progress.

The butter flavoring is not a hazard to consumers who prepare and eat microwave popcorn, but investigators determined that chemicals in the flavoring assaulted those who inhaled it in large amounts.

The plant is still open and has made improvements since the health problems were discovered.

The lawsuit originally was filed as a class action complaint.

The court has since ruled that it be “severed,” meaning each case will be tried separately. The first one could last as long as three weeks.

“We'll do them back to back to back all summer long,” said Ken McClain, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Up first will be Peoples, a married father of two, who worked at the plant from October 1997 to March 1999.

“The only thing he ever did wrong was he went to work,” McClain said. “As a result of that, he needs a double lung transplant. It's a terrible tragedy that's befallen him.

“All he wants to do is see his kids grow up.”

Peoples never expected this, to have handicap license plates on the family's two vehicles, to be sitting idly by as his father teaches his youngsters to ride bikes, and to visit a chiropractor every month to have the kinks in his back — caused by constant hacking — straightened out.

“There are days when I just want to cover my head and try again tomorrow,” Peoples said.

McClain said that it would cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to try the cases. He said that he expected to call about a dozen witnesses in Peoples' trial, then would follow a similar strategy with each ensuing case.

Meanwhile, his firm is working on similar lawsuits in Illinois and Ohio.

To reach Steve Rock, call

(816) 234-4338 or send e-mail

to srock@....

First glance

• A lawsuit filed by a former worker at a Jasper, Mo., popcorn plant, who contends that a manufacturer of butter flavoring is responsible for his health problems, is to go to trial Monday.

• It is the first of 30 such lawsuits to be tried.