CHICAGO – Defendants associated with formulating, manufacturing and packaging household waxes, polishes and cleaners are accused of exposing their ethnic employees to carcinogenic chemicals in an Oct. 18 complaint (Josefina Aguilar, et al. v. Hexagon Packaging Corp., et al., No. 99L11730, Ill. Cir., Cook Co.).
According to the complaint filed in the Illinois Circuit Court for Cook County, ethnic people were intentionally hired because, due to their background, education and primary language, they could not understand the dangers associated with chemical exposure. (Text of Complaint in Section B. Mealey’s Document #15-991103-103.)
Josefina Aguilar and other workers and their family members have been diagnose with different forms of cancer, including leukemia and stomach cancer. The plaintiff’s maintain that their cancer was caused by chemical exposure.
Defendant Hexagon Packaging Corp. formulates, manufactures and packages finished goods such as household waxes, polishes and cleaners. Other named defendants include Robert G. Edison, Manny Gutterman & Associates Inc., Jelmar, Blidco Inc., Better Day, d/b/a Better Day Co. Inc., and Joseph Ruth.
According to the complaint, thiourea is the primary chemical used in the blending of one or more compounds at Hexagon and is a known carcinogen. The carcinogenic chemical morpholine was also used at Hexagon, the complaint says.
No Protection
Aguilar maintains that Hexagon workers dealt with both dry and liquid chemicals and were not given protection from exposure or inhalation of the chemicals. Aguilar maintains that the liquid chemicals would often spill or leak onto the worker’s skin and clothing. Aguilar says that after the dry chemicals became airborne, the chemicals were inhaled and coated the workers’s skin and clothes.
According to the complaint, workers were not provided protective clothes, locker rooms or showers so that they could wash and change after chemical exposure. Likewise, the complaint alleges that the workers did not receive information, training or warnings regarding the hazardous chemicals and the possible effects on their health.
“Defendants Hexagon, Edison, Ruth and Day, intentionally and systematically hired, or directed the hiring of, individuals for the factory floor who because of their ethnic background, education and/or primary language, could not and would not understand the dangers associated with the chemical compounds they were exposed to,” Aguilar argues. “The Defendants intentionally failed to inform their factory workers about the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and intentionally failed to provide access to the MSDS to workers, and failed to provide them in Spanish, which they knew was the primary language of their work force. The Defendants intentionally failed to provide its primarily Spanish speaking workers with a translation.”
The complaint also alleges that Hexagon and other defendants deceived certain workers by promising to pay their full wages, rather than pay them less wages on a workers’ compensation claim, until the statute of limitations allegedly expired, at which time the workers were fired.
Claims asserted include survival act, wrongful death, negligence and loss of consortium.
The complaint was filed by David J. Kupets of Kupets and DeCaro in Chicago.