{"id":1022,"date":"2010-12-06T08:43:45","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T15:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2010-12-06T08:43:45","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T15:43:45","slug":"illinois-lawsuit-against-dow-chemical-being-tried-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=1022","title":{"rendered":"Illinois lawsuit against Dow Chemical being tried in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net.previewdns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Dow-Rohm-Haas.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1023\" title=\"Dow Rohm &amp; Haas\" src=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net.previewdns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Dow-Rohm-Haas.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Dow-Rohm-Haas.jpg 225w, http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Dow-Rohm-Haas-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"AREA_hap_image\" src=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/dbimages\/Dow%20Rohm%20&amp;%20Haas.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" align=\"right\" \/><strong>September  20, 2010-by Bob Femandez in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It was that  plant, according to plaintiff claims, that dumped toxic chemicals into  an unlined retention pond between the early 1960s and late 1970s. The  chemicals traveled to nearby McCollum Lake through a shallow aquifer and  a deepwater aquifer, the plaintiffs claim. <\/strong><br \/>\nJoanne Branham, a restaurant night manager near Apache  Junction, Ariz., flew into Philadelphia last week. She&#8217;s not here to  tour the Constitution Center or shop in Manayunk.<\/p>\n<p>Taking a hotel  room near City Hall, Branham is a plaintiff in a complex and high-stakes  environmental lawsuit that will play out in Philadelphia Common Pleas  Court over the next two to three months. The trial starts Monday at 9:30  a.m. before Judge Allan L. Tereshko.<\/p>\n<p>Branham&#8217;s husband, Frank, a  former factory and construction worker, died of a glioblastoma brain  tumor in 2004. He was 63 and had been a longtime resident of McCollum  Lake Village in Illinois. The lawsuit claims that massive contamination  oozing into the groundwater from a Morton International Inc. chemical  plant about a mile from his home caused his cancer.<\/p>\n<p>The defendant  is Rohm &amp; Haas Co., the former Philadelphia-based owner of the  Morton plant, although the case is being handled by Rohm&#8217;s new corporate  parent, the Dow Chemical Co.<\/p>\n<p>The Branham case is the first of 31  related cases from picturesque McCollum Lake, in McHenry County,  winding their way through the Philadelphia court system.<\/p>\n<p>Branham&#8217;s  attorney, Aaron Freiwald, says it&#8217;s one of the largest  brain-cancer-cluster litigations to reach trial yet. The Branham outcome  could set the stage for the related McCollum Lake cases.<\/p>\n<p>Jurors  were selected Wednesday, and on Thursday Tereshko issued an order  cautioning both sides against speaking to reporters outside the  courtroom, or maintaining websites that could prejudice the case.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I  don&#8217;t want to discuss the case substantively now that the trial has  started, but after five years of preparation, obviously we&#8217;re ready to  go,&#8221; Freiwald said late last week. (MORE)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.philly.com\/inquirer\/business\/homepage\/20100920_Illinois_environmental_case_to_take_place_at_City_Hall.html\" target=\"_blank\">Go to Original<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>September 20, 2010-by Bob Femandez in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It was that plant, according to plaintiff claims, that dumped toxic chemicals into an unlined retention pond between the early 1960s and late 1970s. The chemicals traveled to nearby McCollum Lake &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=1022\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1024,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}