Intalco Aluminum Workers Go To Court

Workers at the Intalco Aluminum Corp. near Ferndale took the companies that designed, built and operated the smelter to federal court in Seattle Monday, hoping to establish a link between working at the smelter and their medical problems.

"It's like having the flu all the time," said Terry Thrift, one of the 26 workers affected.

The symptoms - including memory loss, tremors and loss of balance - were labeled "potroom palsy" by University of Washington researchers who investigated the men's claims and wrote two papers about their ailments. All 26 men worked on or near potlines at the smelter. The pots "cook" alumina ore and other material in a process that produces aluminum.

Medical experts from the United States, Canada and Europe will be called to testify in the trial, expected to last at least two months.

A judgment in favor of the workers could result in a multimillion-dollar award and a legal link between exposure to smelter toxics, including aluminum, and nervous-system ailments.

For six years after the plant opened in 1966, potlines lacked hoods that draw off toxic fumes emitted during smelting. Afflicted worker Don Bard said, "I wouldn't wish this on anyone, not even my worst enemy if I had one."

The defense plans to argue that researchers have failed to determine a link between the plant and the workers' ailments. Jim Frederick, Intalco senior vice president, said the workers' expert witnesses were the only ones who found any evidence of potroom palsy.

"We don't believe such a disease exists and we have very good reasons to believe we are right in that," Frederick said.

The UW researchers did not pinpoint a cause. But they described aluminum as "the neurotoxin most likely responsible for this syndrome." Other frequently cited symptoms include joint pain, dizziness, numbness, severe weakness, trouble concentrating, sleep disturbance and severe headaches.

Attorneys on both sides declined to comment before the trial. But documents filed in U.S. District Court hint at the upcoming battle.

Other defense arguments:

-- Researchers don't agree on a list of signs and symptoms that characterize the illness nor can they state for certain its cause. Complaints cited by workers could be caused by many other factors - stroke, mental retardation, hereditary tremor, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

-- Studies of the men, including one who died recently, have "consistently failed to turn up any evidence of significant aluminum exposure."

Workers' arguments:

-- The research is breaking new ground in much the same way earlier studies associated asbestos with lung diseases. But the scientists used research methods accepted by the scientific community.

-- The scientists believe the chance is greater than 50 percent that the men's medical problems were caused by plant conditions, a legal standard.

-- Research among aluminum workers in Yugoslavia found medical problems remarkably similar to those experienced by the Intalco workers.

-- An autopsy conducted on one of the plaintiffs who died found evidence of elevated levels of aluminum in the man's spleen and three "neurofibrillary tangles," snarls of brain matter some researchers associate with aluminum exposure.