Friday, January 25, 2002
By Associated Press
TOMS RIVER, N.J. ? Sixty-nine families whose children were stricken with cancer they blame on water pollution will share at least $13.27 million from two chemical companies and a water company, a newspaper reported this week. The figure was tallied from court records that became public under a state law that requires settlements with minors to be approved by a judge, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The actual figure is likely millions of dollars more but may never be made public because of a confidentiality agreement the families signed, the newspaper said. Linda Gillick, a spokeswoman for the families, would not confirm or deny the dollar amount. She criticized the state’s release of the information and the newspaper for publishing it. “These families have been through enough. They don’t need the general public finding out what they did or didn’t get,” said Gillick, whose 22-year-old son, Michael, suffers from neuroblastoma. “The numbers do not reflect, in any way, what the families and the children went through,” she said.
In mid-December, the families and their lawyers announced the settlement with Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp., Union Carbide Corp., and United Water Toms River. The companies do not admit liability for water pollution thought to have played a part in the cases.
Additional plaintiffs declined to join the 69 families and are seeking class-action status for their lawsuits.
From 1979 to 1995, 90 children in Dover Township, which includes Toms River, were diagnosed with cancer. That is 23 cases more than researchers would normally expect to find among the township’s population of about 80,000, according to state officials. Leukemia, brain cancers and central nervous system cancer all occurred at higher-than-normal rates, according to the state.
A study concluded that there was no single environmental cause for high cancer rates among children in the Jersey shore community. However, contaminated well water and chemical plant emissions were linked with some leukemia cases.
The families alleged their children were sickened by drinking water polluted by a Ciba-Geigy chemical plant and a site where Union Carbide dumped toxic wastes in 1971. Ciba and Union Carbide have assumed responsibility for contamination at Dover Township’s two Superfund sites. United Water bought the public water system serving most of the township from the Toms River Water Co. in 1994.
The court documents do not reveal amounts paid to the estates of 15 Toms River children who died of cancer. They also do not indicate payments made to adult siblings or survivors.
Among the attorneys for the 69 families was Jan Schlichtmann, who represented victims in a similar case at Woburn, Mass., that was the basis for the book and film A Civil Action.
