Toms River cancer cluster settlement calculated at $13.27M

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Toms River cancer cluster settlement calculated at $13.27M

Thursday, January 24, 2002

The Associated Press

TOMS RIVER -- Sixty-nine families whose children were stricken with cancer

will share at least $13.27 million to be paid by two chemical companies and

a water company as part of a settlement announced last month, according to a

published report.

The figure was reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer, which tallied it from

court records. They became public under a state law that requires

settlements with minors to be approved by a judge. The actual figure is

likely millions of dollars more but may never be known because of a

confidentiality agreement the families signed.

In mid-December, the families and their lawyers announced the settlement

with Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp., Union Carbide Corp., and United Water

Toms River. The companies, however, did not admit liability for water

pollution thought to have played a part in the illnesses.

Between 1979 and 1995, 90 children in Dover Township were diagnosed with

cancer, an abnormally high number, according to state officials. Leukemia,

brain cancers, and central nervous system cancer all occurred at

higher-than-normal rates, according to the state.

The families alleged their children became ill after drinking water polluted

by a Ciba-Geigy chemical plant and a site where a Union Carbide contractor

dumped toxic wastes in 1971.

The court documents do not reveal amounts paid to the estates of 15 children

who died of cancer. They also do not indicate payments made to adult

siblings or survivors, but they do mention a $3.75 million " recurrence fund "

from the $13.27 million figure to cover expenses should any of the surviving

victims suffer relapses. The fund is earmarked for 54 survivors of various

childhood cancers, including leukemia and brain and nervous system cancers.

The Inquirer reported that from the remaining $9.52 million, the children

will share a net $6.83 million, after attorneys' fees and other costs.

Cancer survivors are to receive payments of $90,000 to $450,000, apparently

depending upon severity of illness, The Inquirer reported. Siblings are to

receive lesser amounts -- generally $5,000 each -- for emotional distress.

The settlement ends four years of mediation among the parties about possible

links between environmental contamination and the cancers. There are still

pending lawsuits from 600 plaintiffs who declined to join the 69 families.

Those plaintiffs are seeking class-action status.

Representatives for the two companies and the utility refused Wednesday to

discuss the dollar amounts in the December settlement.

" When the case was settled, we signed an agreement with all the parties,

including the families, to keep the information confidential, " said Ciba

spokeswoman Donna Jakubowski. " Ciba is honoring that agreement. "

Gillick, a spokeswoman for the families, would not confirm or deny the

dollar amount. She criticized the release of the information and the

newspaper for publishing it.

" I think it's very wrong that the judge -- or the state -- would make this

information available. These families have been through enough. They don't

need the general public finding out what they did or didn't get. The numbers

do not reflect, in any way, what the families and the children went through,

especially those who passed away, " she said.

She called the settlement an admission of guilt by the companies but said

the dollar amounts are no one else's business.

" I'm very disappointed. Prying into this part of it is none of their

business, " said Gillick, whose 22-year-old son, , suffers from

neuroblastoma.

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