Tenneco Employees Settle Civil Suit Against the Company

13 employees of the Tenneco, Inc. Hartwell plant have settled their personal injury lawsuit that claimed the company failed to protect them from the harmful effects of the chemical hexavalent chromium.

 According to their attorney, Drew Hill, the suit was settled recently out of court.

“All parties to this litigation have settled all of their differences to their mutual satisfaction and are moving on,” he told the Hartwell Sun last week. 

The suit was filed in November, 2013  in Hart County Superior Court.

“Our clients alleged they were exposed to hexavalent chromium, which is used in the Hartwell plant in the manufacture of shock absorbers,” Hill said when the suit was filed last year.

Also named in the complaint were Atotech USA of Delaware, HCH Services of North Carolina, and Compass Health and Safety of Illionois.

The complaint alleged all of the workers had suffered various health problems as a result of exposure to hexavalent chromium.

“There are various injuries, such as nasal injuries and respiratory injuries from exposure to the chemical, ” Hill said Tuesday.

Hexavalent Chromium is a known carcinogen that causes cancer and other respiratory problems after long-term exposure.

The 27-page complaint documented what the workers claimed was continuous exposure to the chemcial since 2007 when KCH Services was hired to install new ventilation hoods and flight bar covers and repair the air ducts on the ventilation system for the platers that use hexavalent chromium.

Atotech USA peformed design work necessary for KCH Services to install the ventilation hoods and flight bars.  However, the complaint alleges both companies failed to design and install the system properly and workers were exposed to unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium.

The workers claimed that in 2010, they started detecting a strong odor of hexavalent chromium in the factory and asked their employer repeatedly to check out the smells.

Upon inspection, the workers said they found cracked and broken ventilation hoods that were not channeling the fumes from the hexavalent chromium into the ventilation system. They also discovered a collapsed air shaft within the ventilation system that prevented the system from working properly.

They also claimed the air scrubbers inside the ventilation system were not working properly and so not removing the toxic fumes from the air in the factory.

The workers claimed in their suit that they made the company aware of the broken ventilation system, but the company took no action until 2011.

At that time, Tenneco management consulted with Atotech, which said broken flight bar covers would have no effect on air quality. However, plant management, the complaint said, later admitted they were necessary to clean the air.

In March 2011, the company contacted Compass Health and Safety to perform air quality tests inside the factory.  The company concluded hexavalent chromium levels were well above the safe levels of exposure required by the U.S. Occupational, Health and Safety Administration regulations.

The complaint alleged, Tenneco management opened doors and windows during the air quality test to lower the levels of hexavalent chromium fumes in the plant to knowingly scew the results in their favor.

Hill did not specify the terms of the settlement nor if any monetary damages were awarded and if so, how much.

InHill said however, that quote,