Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE and LYNN DUCEY
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- A spokeswoman for Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp. said yesterday that the company "fully intends to defend" its belief that there is no connection between past contamination at the company's Toms River site and any health problems experienced by Dover Township residents.
"Obviously this has all been placed in the hands of our lawyers," Ciba spokeswoman Donna M. Jakubowski said yesterday of the class-action suit filed Thursday against the company by four New Jersey lawyers.
The suit alleges that the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. is responsible for contaminating the water supply here, and should pay for medical monitoring to detect potential health problems in people exposed to polluted water.
The suit was filed on behalf of Linda S. Breen of Central Avenue, George D. Trustan, formerly of Cranmore Drive and now living in Lacey, and Laura Piccirillo, Cedar Row. The plaintiffs represent a larger group of residents who lawyers Norman Hobbie, Angelo Cifaldi, Michael Gordon and Christopher Placitella claim were exposed to volatile organic contaminants that leached into drinking water from the Ciba site.
The suit seeks unspecified amounts of compensatory and punitive damages, and claims Breen, Trustan and Piccirillo were "exposed, via ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact, to said contaminants."
Breen and Trustan declined to comment, referring all questions to the lawyers. A message left for Piccirillo was not returned.
None of the plaintiffs are ill now, but Hobbie said Thursday that the lawyers are considering filing another suit on behalf of those already stricken. An ad in yesterday's Asbury Park Press, with the heading "Did You Drink Contaminated Water in Toms River?" urged residents who have developed leukemia, lymphoma, brain, bladder, kidney, or central nervous system cancers, to call the Toms River law office of Hobbie, Corrigan, Bertucio & Tashjy for a "free consultation."
"Exhibit A" in the lawsuit is a public health assessment on the Ciba site released in late February by the state Department of Health and Senior Services and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
The health assessment, which was completed as part of an ongoing study of elevated levels of childhood cancer here, concluded people who lived here in 1965-66 may have been exposed to traces of aniline-based dyes and nitrobenzene from the Ciba-Geigy Corp. that seeped into three wells used by the Toms River Water Co., now known as United Water Toms River.
About 35,500 people used public water in Dover in the 1965-66 time period, and the four lawyers have said they believe there could be thousands of potential plaintiffs.
Another pathway for toxins from the Ciba-Geigy property was contaminated ground water pumped into homes in the Cardinal Drive neighborhood through private wells. Cardinal Drive is next to the plant property.
"What we have here is that for the first time, the government has taken the environmental contamination and matched it to a public health impact," said attorney Gordon. "They said there has been a completed exposure pathway for thousands and thousands of residents who were exposed to these chemicals through the public water supply. We felt it was time to hold the company accountable for their past conduct."
Jakubowski noted yesterday that pub-lic health assessments are not intend-ed to show a causal relationship be-tween environmental contamination and disease.
"That's basically what the epidemio-logical study is for," said the Ciba spokeswoman, referring to a massive epidemiological study of children with cancer that is expected to be complet-ed in late spring or early summer next year. "Hopefully, the answers will come out then, and we don't believe the answers will show any kind of causal relationship between Ciba and any health problems in Toms River."
The timing of the suit concerns mem-bers of the group Toxic Environment Affects Children's Health, a group of about 68 families of children with cancer. TEACH has entered into agreements with Ciba, Union-Carbide Corp. and United Water Toms River in which the group has agreed not to sue the three companies while infor-mation is being exchanged.
The groups' latest agreement with the three companies expires in Janu-ary 2001.
"While we share the general concern raised by the lawsuit filed yesterday, we believe the process we are en-gaged in with the responsible parties and the governmental agencies is more likely to further our goals at this juncture," TEACH said in a prepared statement.
Published on May 20, 2000
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