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Chemical exposure claim leads to suit By: Steve Horrell , [log in to unmask] 10/21/2003 Man seeks $1.1 million in damages A welder who claims his exposure to manganese during his 27-year career with Union Electric caused him to develop Parkison's disease, testified Monday that he began developing symptoms of the disease a decade ago. "When I first started having problems, I was at work and I had a few comments about the way I was walking," Larry Elam said. "I was walking and not really realizing, and sometimes when I was working I would try and get up and my legs would feel like rubber." Symptoms also began appearing at the dinner table, he said. Sometimes when he held a coffee cup his hand would shake, and he began noticing tremors when he reached for a knife or fork. The white-haired 65-year-old Collinsville man spent more than two hours on the witness stand, answering questions posed by his attorney, Bob Bosslett, and an attorney for the defense, Pat Gloor. Bosslett filed suit in Madison County Court in July of 2001, naming A.O. Smith Corp., General Electric Co., Lincoln Electric Co., and 20 others as defendants. Bosslett is seeking $1.1 million in damages. A jury that heard the case in June failed to reach a verdict. Bosslett said Monday that Elam's medical expenses - mostly for medication - have approached $29,000. Elam said his symptoms convinced him to retire from Union Electric in 1996. He had begun working there as a porter laborer in 1967 and worked his way up, taking a position as an apprentice machinist, then a pipefitter. In 1985 he became a welder. On Monday, Elam told jurors about several projects he worked on at UE plants in Labadie, Rush Island, Meramec, and Portage Des Sioux. There were fans available, but the primary means of protection, he said, were hard hats, welder's helmets, and masks. During one period, Elam said he was going through more than a hundred welding rods a day. At times the fumes from manganese and other chemicals was so thick that he often had to stop and wipe them off the front of his helmet lens. "It would fog up real bad," he said. But under cross examination by Gloor, Elam acknowledged that Union Electric was quick to repond to potentially unsafe situations and sought to make conditions as safe as possible. Gloor said Elam chose not to read a variety of warning labels that were posted for workers to see. They warned that overexposure to manganese may affect the central nervous system and cause muscular weakness, tremors, and other symptoms similar to Parkinson's. In his opening statements to the jury, Bosslett said that the welding industry had known for decades about the dangers of exposure to manganese and had withheld the information from workers and the public. The trial will continue through this week. SOURCE: The Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL http://tinyurl.com/rswa * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn