Posted by Ken on 1/04/08

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I worked for a chemical company for 32 years. I have COPD,
totaly disabled, and on oxygen. I am drawing SS
disability, and looks like I will soon be getting
workman's comp. benefits. I worked with many types of
chemicals and compounds. To name a few were:
toluenediisocynate, toluene,
methylethylketone,trichloroethane,benzen,alcohol,heptane,as
bestos,fumed silica,diatoanatious earth,silicon,and many
other powders, compounds, and liquids. I was told by my
doctors that most of the lung damage was probably in the
first few years of employment. Back in the early 70's
there wasn't much protection provided. We used to clean
floors with 5 gallon buckets of toluene, trichloroethane
or what ever was handy at the time. No protective
equipment was used. If there was a large spill of liquid (
50 gal. up to 2000 Gal ) we would get shovels , and scoop
up the liquid into drums. We were provided cotton gloves.
In order to save money when the gloves got dirty with
adhesive, etc. , the gloves were put in a 5 gallon bucket
of toluene or trichloroethane to clean and reuse! We used
to make our own hand cleaner. The cleaner was mainly
thickened trichloroethane. I think it is used in bug
killers! We had to share some safety equipment like a
solvent mask, and brass tools. I think in those days the
supervisor got a bonus at the end of the year if supplies
were kept under a certain amount. I worked on a coater for
about 8 years before I became totaly disabled. The coater
is a 100 yard oven where adhesives are measured onto paper
or plastic backing. This goes thru the oven at certain
speeds and temp. The oven zones were set at any where from
50 to 350 degrees. If we would see a defect while running
a product, it was an accepted pratice to go into the oven
to find the cause of the defect while running. You had to
hold your breath as long as you could because of the oven
heat and concentrated solvent fumes. This has been going
on and is still going on for over 35 years. We were
allowed to have beards because we were told we didn't need
solvent masks. You couldn't get a good seal with a beard.
Forgive my ranting I, just wanted to get a little of this
off my chest. I guess because of workman's comp. I can't
sue my employer. But, can I sue the chemical suppliers as
a whole, even if I can't prove what chemicals actually
caused my COPD?

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