without disclosing that the PEL is set only for non-cancer effects. This misrepresentation was made

2 wilfully even though the suppliers including Fisher Scientific now admit in written product disclosures

3 that methylene chloride may cause both cancer and adverse fetal effects, and that its target organs are

4 the blood and central nervous system. This misrepresentation was made by sophisticated suppliers of

5 so-called "ultra high purity" electronic grade chemicals who knew that IBM workers would use the

6 methylene chloride that was being supplied in conjunction with other so-called "ultra high purity"

7 electronic grade chemicals in the manufacture of microelectronics products and devices. Defendants

8 also knew that the function of air circulation devices serving a clean room is to remove particulates and

9 that these devices actually recirculate and distribute gaseous air contaminants throughout the clean room

10 Notwithstanding such knowledge, these suppliers conveyed grossly misleading and inadequate

11 information to IBM regarding these dangers knowing and intending that IBM would repeat, convey or

12 in some fashion communicate these misleading statements to employees, including Plaintiffs, and

13 Plaintiffs' decedent. Plaintiffs' decedent Aniceto Batista and plaintiff Khalid Haq detrimentally relied

14 upon these misrepresentations and omissions concerning known information regarding hazards from

15 exposure to methylene chloride made to IBM and repeated, communicated and/or in some fashion

16 authoritatively conveyed to them.

17 96. Trichloroethylene. The suppliers to IBM of trichloroethylene, including without limitation,

18 defendants Shell Oil Company, Sigma-Aldrich Corp., Sigma Aldrich, Inc., dba Sigma-Aldrich

19 Sales, Inc., Sigma-Aldrich Company, Aldrich Chemical Company, Ashland Oil, Inc., and Union

20 Carbide Corp., represented throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s in written product communications

21 to IBM and its employees, including plaintiffs that trichloroethylene could be used safely in IBM clean

22 rooms as long as its concentration remained below the OSHA "PEL" without disclosing that the PEL is

23 set only for non-cancer effects. This misrepresentation was made by sophisticated suppliers of so-called

24 "ultra high purity" electronic grade chemicals who knew that IBM workers would use the

25 trichloroethylene that was being supplied in conjunction with other so-called "ultra high purity"

26 electronic grade chemicals in the manufacture of microelectronics products and devices. Defendants

27 also knew that the function of air circulation devices serving a clean room is to remove particulates and

28 that these devices actually recirculate and distribute gaseous air contaminants throughout the clean room.

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COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES, PERSONAL INJURY AND WRONGFUL DEATH

MM 006977