Judge throws out most Coldwater Creek cancer claims [View all]

[pstokely]

Source: St. Louis Post-dispatch

Attorneys for Mallinckrodt, which is now known as Covidien pharmaceuticals, did not respond for comment. A spokeswoman for the Hazelwood-based company has said its operations did not involve the disposal or cleanup of contaminated debris from uranium processing.

The people suing Mallinckrodt are seeking compensation similar to that awarded to the company’s former workers. People who worked at the company’s locations around St. Louis, including waste sites near the airport, and developed one of 22 cancers are eligible for payment of medical expenses plus $150,000.

The lead plaintiff in the first lawsuit is Scott McClurg, 40, a professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale who grew up in Florissant and has been treated for brain cancer. McClurg did not respond to an interview request. Other plaintiffs include a woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 18. McClurg and classmates from McCluer North High School in the late 1980s and early 1990s reconnected through Facebook in 2011 and noticed numerous cancer diagnoses among their families.

Scientists are almost always stumped by investigations into suspected cancer clusters because of the complexity of the disease and the difficulty in measuring exposures to carcinogens. Thousands of potential clusters are reported to health departments in the U.S. each year, but most instances that do turn up high cancer rates are never linked to a specific cause.


Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/health/judge-throws-out-most-coldwater-creek-cancer-claims/article_1101cc0c-7185-534f-89ff-870a322ff042.html