Polyvinyl Chlorides

Aggravated Battery

Five Chicago Magnet Wire senior executives were charged with aggravated battery, conspiracy, and reckless conduct in a case in which more than 40 company employees suffered nerve and lung disorders resulting from exposure to hazardous chemicals at the company's Elk Grove Village, Illinois, facility. These chemicals included polyvinyl chlorides. The charges were first dismissed in 1985 by an Illinois state judge. That decision was upheld by a state appellate court, but it finally was reversed by the Illinois Supreme Court in February 1989. The following October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the five-year-old case, thus letting the conviction stand. The court's decision to not hear the case cleared the way for all state prosecutors to proceed against executives for crimes regarding the health and safety of their employees, an issue which had up to that time been decided differently in different state courts.

In November 2001, an Italian court acquitted former chemical company managers of criminal charges ranging from mass manslaughter to environmental damage. The charges had been brought against the EniChem and Montedison managers three years earlier on behalf of 157 workers who had died of cancer and another 103 who had died of other illnesses between 1965 and 1985. These[Page 623] deaths were alleged to have occurred because of the workers' exposure to vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) at the Porto Marghera, Italy, chemical complex. Environmental charges resulted from the company's allowing the effluent to pollute the famed Venice Lagoon. The court's ruling to dismiss charges was based on the fact that the workers originally became ill in the 1950s and 1960s, but it was 1973 before the potential dangers of VCM were discovered. VCM is used in the production of PVC. Montedison, in a separate agreement with Italy's environmental ministry and the prime minister's office, agreed to help fund clean up of Porto Marghera and the lagoon.

In July 2000, the European Commission issued a Green Paper with its evaluation of PVC environmental issues. The Green Paper stated that PVC is one of today's most widespread plastics with about 5.5 million tons produced in Europe alone in 1998. Lead, cadmium, and organotins are stabilizers in PVC products which are used to prevent deterioration from heat and light. Lead stabilizers are classified as toxic and carcinogenic; cadmium is classed as harmful, toxic, or highly toxic, carcinogenic, and dangerous to the environment.

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