PITTSBURGH – The lawyer who was disqualified from the troubled toxic tort litigation he tried to lead in Lancaster County is trying his hand at a new one in Allegheny.
The Law Offices of George Chada, of Natrona Heights, filed a lawsuit this month in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas against Allegheny Technologies, claiming his client was given brain damage by exposure to trichloroethylene and heavy metals.
That client, Leonard Younkins, began work at Allegheny Ludlum Steel Manufacturing Plant in 1977. For three years, he repaired and maintained dust collectors designed to clean up byproducts from melt furnaces, the suit says.
The byproducts were sent into a “baghouse” – a multi-compartment air pollution control device. He spent up to 32 hours a week inside the baghouse, where some compartments could stay running while he was inside, the suit says. It also says he often had to work bare-handed.
“At relevant times, while working inside the baghouse compartments, Younkins’ paper respirator clogged to make breathing extremely difficult,” the suit says. “In January 1981, Younkins’ doctor ordered a 24-hour urine sample which showed high levels of zinc.”
Through the years, he continued to be exposed to toxic dusts and gases from the baghouse, the suit says, as well as “acid fumes that evolved from ATI’s ‘pickle lines.’”
Exposure to trichloroethylene came when it was used to clean machine parts, the suit says.
“The heavy metals to which Younkins was exposed bioaccumulate in the body and affect the brain and spinal cord to cause brain damage and cognitive dysfunction,” the suit says.
Chada’s previous try at toxic tort litigation attempted to hold Armstrong World Industries and Brenntag liable for exposing workers to certain chemicals like benzene. After not following instructions from the judge and more than 10 years after he filed the first case, Chada was disqualified by a Lancaster County judge – against the wishes of some of his clients.