TRADE CENTER SITE WORKERS PLAN TO SUE OVER RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS

New York, July 10, 2002 (Bloomberg News) — Crane operators and other recovery workers at the World Trade Center site filed notice of intent to sue the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, claiming their respiratory ailments were preventable. The workers, many of whom have coughs and other problems, “were not provided proper breathing equipment to protect their lungs” against asbestos, fiberglass, benzene and other toxins released during cleanup operations after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, said Greg Hach of Hach & Rose LLP in Manhattan, who represents about 50 workers. Port authority spokesman Steve Coleman declined to comment, saying agency attorneys haven’t reviewed the claims. The port authority owns the 16-acre trade center site. Similar notices of intent to sue have been filed on behalf of some victims’ families. Deadlines for trade center-related claims begin expiring today. New York State law governing the port authority requires people who might sue the agency to file a notice within 10 months from the date of an injury. A notice of intent is filed “to preserve the right to sue,” said Marc Moller, an attorney with the Kreindler & Kreindler law firm in Manhattan, which represents 200 families of victims who have filed notices. The families claim the port authority increased the danger with public-address announcements telling workers in the south tower to return to their desks after the north tower had collapsed, Moller said. The attack killed 2,823 people.

Some of the workers who spent months cleaning up the debris “are to the point of being disabled or can’t work anymore,” Hach said. Ralph Pascarella, 42, an operating engineer who spent 16 hours a day at the site, said he has experienced coughing and “a burning sensation in the chest and nose from the smoke and chemicals.” Fires stoked by jet fuel burned under the trade center rubble for three months. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air samples taken at the site showed elevated levels of cancer-causing toxins such as asbestos, benzene and fiberglass particles. The agency has said the levels were too low to be health risks for workers wearing proper respirators and other safety equipment. Many workers claimed they were given cloth masks, not respirators, in the early stages of recovery, Hach said. Day laborers in cleanup operations weren’t told about the health risks and often worked with little or no protection, said Dr. Ekatarina Malievskaia, who helped run a mobile medical station at the site in January and February. About 420 day laborers screened for respiratory problems at the station showed such symptoms as coughing, wheezing, fatigue, headaches and nausea, said Malievskaia, a coordinator for the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at the City University of New York’s Queens College campus. For most of the symptoms, “we think it was related to the nature of the dust these people were inhaling,” she said.

UNION FILES ANTITRUST LAWSUIT ALLEGING PFIZER SUBSIDIARY BLOCKED GENERIC DRUG

March 20, 2002 - A New York City-based union health benefit fund announced March 18 it has filed an antitrust class action lawsuit alleging Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Warner Lambert Co. maintained “sham patent infringement lawsuits” to delay and prevent generic competition for its epilepsy drug Neurontin (Health and Benefit Trust Fund of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 94, 94A, 94B v. Pfizer Inc., S.D.N.Y., No. 02CV1845, 3/7/02).

The lawsuit was filed March 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Health and Benefit Trust Fund of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 94.

Operating Engineers Local 94 President Michael A. Carney said the fund is filing the lawsuit “not only because we have a fiduciary duty to our members and our fund to do so, but because our members and their families are tired of being ripped off by big companies charging illegally inflated prices and making obscene profits.” He said other union health and welfare funds and private insurers have indicated they may join the lawsuit.

Specifically, the complaint alleged that the defendants violated federal and state antitrust laws and deceptive practice statutes by preventing generic manufacturers, including Purepac Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Apotex Inc., from competing in the market for Neurontin.

Since Pfizer’s acquisition of Warner-Lambert in June 2000, Pfizer has maintained “sham patent infringement lawsuits against its potential horizontal competition for Neurontin,” the complaint said.

The fund is being represented by the firms HACH & ROSE, LLP and Zwerling, Schacter & Zwerling, LLP.