Vinyl Chloride Exposure Investigation Underway

Kahn Gauthier Swick is investigating instances in which persons have been exposed to the chemical vinyl chloride. Plant workers, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) fabricators, railroad and transportation workers, and beauticians who worked prior to 1974 are most likely to have been exposed; exposure may also come through contaminated drinking water or living near an area where PVC is manufactured, loaded, or unloaded. If you or a loved one might have been exposed to this highly toxic chemical, vinyl chloride, please contact Kahn Gauthier for more information about a lawsuit.

The story of vinyl chloride (PVC) is a tale of corporate deception in which vinyl chloride industry executives kept workers and government health officials in the dark about the debilitating and sometimes fatal consequences of working with vinyl chloride. It is now apparent that vinyl chloride (PVC) causes certain signature injuries: disintegration of the bones in the fingers, fatal liver and brain cancer, and circulatory impairment. Today, thirty years after the industry first learned that vinyl chloride causes cancer, workers are still dying, and many people -including an untold number of beauty shop workers in the 1960s and 1970s- remain unaware that they were heavily exposed for years to the highly hazardous, potentially deadly substance, vinyl chloride. Exposure to vinyl chloride has been linked to the following diseases:

Acroosteolysis

By the mid-1960s the first waves of injured workers were appearing. There were reports of acroosteolysis (also known as AOL), referred to in industry documents as "the hand disease," an insidious and debilitating condition that, in the most extreme cases, is manifested by degeneration of the bones in the tips of the fingers. There is now evidence that Acroosteolysis may not only be restricted to bones in the hand, but may also affect the bones of the toes, arms, legs, pelvis, and mandible.

The chemical industry heavily promoted vinyl chloride (PVC) as a propellant in aerosol cans throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. As early as 1964, Aerosol Age, a trade magazine, reported that vinyl chloride in the air could reach very high levels in beauty parlors where hair spray was used-- levels that would later be judged by vinyl chloride (PVC) makers themselves to exceed the dose known to cause cancer in chemical plant workers. By 1969, B.F. Goodrich reported in an internal industry memo that: "People in the cosmetics trade have become concerned about the possible toxicity of these propellants."

Angiosarcoma of the Liver

Angiosarcoma is a malignant tumor that originates in the blood vessels of the body. Angiosarcoma of the liver is a signature cancer associated with exposure to vinyl chloride.

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