Lawsuit legislation addresses realities of modern work life

In the early part of the last century, young women in Illinois were hired to paint watch and clock dials with a special glow-in-the-dark paint that contained the element radium. The paint was regarded as state of the art, but many of the women, taught to use their lips to create a finer point on the tips of their paintbrushes, later succumbed to agonizing illness and death. That’s because, as the name implies, radium emits harmful radiation.

Now known as the “Radium Girls,” these women famously worked at a watch factory in Ottawa, fewer than 50 miles southwest of Joliet. Manufacturers in Elgin also used radium to produce luminous watches. While it may seem a long time ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently began removing radium-contaminated soil from the former Silbert Watch Co. site.

The fate of those women should not be forgotten — and neither should the lessons that followed. Learning from history and science, two subjects that seem woefully out of fashion in Washington, D.C. these days, remains critically important in Illinois, where efforts to protect the public from toxic exposure are not only ongoing, but evolving.

That’s why Senate Bill 328, headed to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk, is so important. In the simplest terms, it holds companies doing business in Illinois, no matter where they are headquartered, accountable if people suffer harm through exposure to toxic substances utilized by those companies.

Probably the most familiar example is asbestos, a mineral with strong fire-suppression properties. Like radium, it was once seen as an industrial marvel and was used in a wide range of products, including building construction materials. Eventually, scientists came to understand that a terrible form of lung cancer called mesothelioma was caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers. About 3,000 Americans every year are diagnosed with the disease and most will endure years of pain and medical complications before succumbing to its ravages.

While the time has long passed for the Radium Girls to have received justice for the suffering they endured due to repeated encounters with a hazardous substance, that is not the case for those exposed to asbestos and other industrial toxins.

Fortunately Illinoisans live in a state that is particularly well-equipped to handle such legal cases. Through decades of experience trying asbestos claims, judges, as well as plaintiff and defense attorneys, have developed subject matter expertise that makes for a much more efficient legal process, saving the already busy courts’ time and taxpayer resources.

One exception to that well-functioning state of affairs concerns the cases of people who worked in Illinois and other states. For example, a journeyman plumber who did repairs at an Illinois power plant and who later did similar work at generating stations in Texas, Kentucky and Massachusetts. While working at those facilities for extended periods of time the plumber inhaled enough asbestos fibers (manufactured by various companies) to cause mesothelioma. Under current law, he could file a case in Illinois that pertained to the Illinois power plant, but to seek justice for the harm caused to him in the other three states, he would need to file separate cases in each, incurring considerable time and expense.

Unfortunately, if there is one thing that mesothelioma victims do not have it is time. When they are diagnosed, the disease is usually well enough advanced, they have neither the stamina nor energy for extensive travel. And, with few exceptions, they are all working people. They may have earned a decent, middle-class income, but they are not wealthy and do not have vast resources to pursue legal action across multiple states.

While most of those who were made seriously ill and died from radium paint exposure probably never ventured too far beyond Illinois’ borders, the modern economy is defined by mobility. With workers traveling across state lines and across the country for jobs, the risk of prolonged and compounding exposure to dangerous toxins has only increased. Illinois must ensure that our legal system keeps pace with the way we work and what we now know about occupational hazards.

With Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature, SB 328 will rectify a deeply unfair situation and provide an opportunity for more complete justice for the wrongs done to blue-collar workers exposed to toxic substances. It’s also a way to honor the memories of the women poisoned by their work in watch factories who didn’t deserve their cruel deaths. And, finally, the measure’s enactment will show that unlike so many of the elected officials in the nation’s capital, those at the Illinois Capitol value the lessons of history, heed the insights of science and want to do everything possible to ensure justice for the Radium Girls of our time.

• Timothy J. Cavanagh is founder of Cavanagh Sorich Law Group in Chicago and president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.