In a case of workers litigation, welding industry defendants have withdrawn a major health study from evidence presented at the trial of Ernesto Solis, who had been poisoned by the toxic fumes of welding and became afflicted with a mental disease with Parkinsons’ like symptoms.
The study, entitled “Employment as a Welder and Parkinson’s Disease: A Study of Three Caterpillar Inc. Plants”, had been presented by the defending industries as evidence that there was no solid correlation between welding fumes and neurological damages. The plaintiff’s analyzation of this evidence produced support that the data had been misaligned so as to skew interpretation – data supposedly from Caterpillar welders actually came from Caterpillar fabricators, another line of workers entirely with little to no exposure to the toxic welding manganese. Don Barett, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, stated that “the Caterpillar study is junk science at its absolute worst, and it shows how low these corporations will stoop to protect the bottom line…. At the end of the day, the welding industry defendants really had no choice but to pull this study, because it goes a long way toward proving the claims made by thousands of sick American welders. Each and every time we’ve been allowed to examine the data underlying a health study sponsored by the defendants, we discover that the data actually supports their claims.”
If you or someone you know has been injured due to toxic welding fumes, please contact a personal injury attorney such as Jim S. Adler of Houston, Texas.
