"Fumes could change cells"

A Case Western Reserve pharmacologist, Steven Rudolph, testified Tuesday in Lake County Common Pleas Court that a 67-year-old carpenter foreman could have suffered lung damage by breathing chemical sealant fumes at the Perry Nuclear Power plant in 1980.

Rudolph also told the jury, hearing the lawsuit of David Shumaker, that recent findings show the sealant fumes, commonly known as "Liquid Envelope," can cause transformation of normal cells, similar to that of cancer.

Shumaker filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against Oliver B. Cannon & Sons Inc., paint contractors who sprayed the sealant during 1980 in a nuclear reactor room.

Since the lawsuit, Shumaker has been diagnosed as having terminal pancreatic cancer.

Shumaker's lawyer, Lawrence Landskroner, is not contending in the lawsuit that the fumes caused the cancer. He said in a trial brief that Shumaker's exposure to the "Liquid Envelope" resulted in chronic obstructive lung disease that prevented him from returning to work. Rudolph admitted on cross-examination by lawyer John Travis that he did not have a complete medical history of Shumaker prior to Shumaker's alleged exposure to "Liquid Envelope."

Travis introduced medical records from Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna that he claims show that Shumaker had chronic bronchitis prior to June 16, 1980, the date Shumaker says he was overcome by the chemical sealant fumes.

Dennis J. Rylance, a former paint sprayer for Cannon, testified that he was ordered by a supervisor to pump "Liquid Envelope" into the air so other tradesmen would get sick. Rylance told the jury that the order was done so Cannon employees could get on second shift and make 20 percent more money. Rylnace said he got sick from the fumes because the filter on the respirator he wore was inoperative. He said he suffered loss of hair and that his eyes were going bad from exposure to the chemical, methylene chloride, a component of "Liquid Envelope."

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