Beryllium News
July 10, 2006: Boeing Workers Seek Medical Monitoring Claim for Beryllium-Related Injuries
Boeing workers are seeking to recover the costs of medical monitoring without proving actual physical injury from beryllium exposure. The plaintiffs allege that they were exposed to beryllium while working on the manufacture of space shuttle parts, and have asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to find that state law permits a cause of action for medical monitoring.
March 31, 2006: Beryllium Sensitization Not a Compensable "Injury"
Workers at the Marietta, Georgia Lockheed facilities (and their families) filed a class action lawsuit against companies that manufacture or use beryllium products, alleging that exposure to beryllium dust caused personal injuries in the form of sub-clinical, cellular, and sub-cellular damages, and that some workers suffered from acute and chronic lung disease, dermatologic disease, and chronic beryllium disease (CBD). A federal court in Georgia held that beryllium sensitization (which can lead to CBD) is not a compensable "injury" under Georgia law, and that "symptoms" described by the plaintiffs did not rise to the level of conditions or effects that Georgia courts (or other state courts) would consider actionable.
