Madison County, Illinois Welding Rod Lawsuit Creates Investor Fears
July 6 2003.
As a result of welding rod lawsuit filed in Madison County Illinois courthouse and elsewhere, BOC stock is at risk. According to a market researcher from London who was among those who followed the welding rod lawsuit on the issue of whether fumes from welding rods cause Parkinson's disease or Parkinson's-type illness, "We think investors are getting much more aware of plaintiff-friendly areas in the U.S. and tend to assume a more plaintiff-friendly outcome."
The three welding rod lawsuit defendants included BOC Group, a global company that primarily produces industrial gases and employs about 43,000 people. Phillips said BOC Group's stock has underperformed in comparison to other major producers of industrial gases, partly because of investor fears of liability in welding-rod lawsuit cases.
Only a handful of welding rod lawsuits have gone to trial in the United States involving allegations that welding rods cause Parkinsonism.
A study conducted in 2001 at Washington University in St. Louis suggested a link between manganese in welding-rod fumes and early onset of Parkinson's. The study of 15 welders who had Parkinson's found they developed the disease an average of 15 years earlier than the general population. However, the neurologist who conducted the study concluded it is too early to say whether welding causes Parkinson's.
David Rae, an attorney for BOC Group, said that one firm has filed welding rod lawsuits against BOC Group seven times.
