The Record
Ex-Lodi man suing company, blames Maywood site for cancer
Tuesday, January 30, 2001
http://www.bergen.com/bcent/toxicman200101302.htm
By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer

A 37-year-old state prison inmate is suing Stepan Co., alleging that he acquired a form of cancer from living near the company's radioactive site.

Former Lodi resident Robert A. Sogluizzo was diagnosed in March 1999 with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, says a lawsuit filed in Superior Court.

Eight months after that diagnosis, in November 1999, Stepan agreed to pay $10 million in settlements to 570 residents of Maywood, Lodi, and Rochelle Park. Those residents were in the process of suing the company after environmental tests revealed massive radioactive contamination at the Maywood property and in surrounding soil and groundwater.

Sogluizzo's wife and attorney say he never pursued a settlement because he was in prison at the time and was unaware of them. Sogluizzo is still at Trenton State Prison, serving out the final months of a 15-year sentence for armed robbery, records show.

"I don't see how this [the settlement] would prevent him from bringing his own action," said Sogluizzo's attorney, Kenneth E. Ryan. "You can't say, 'Sorry, pal, you missed the boat.' "

Several of Sogluizzo's family members benefited from the 1998 settlement, Ryan said. After he went to prison, however, Sogluizzo did not keep in touch with his siblings and never heard about the settlements, said his wife, Janice.

"He wasn't aware of the lawsuit until I cut an article out of The Record and sent it to him," she said.

Officials at Stepan did not return a call to the company's Northfield, Ill., headquarters Monday.

At the time of the settlement, company Chief Executive F. Quinn Stepan told shareholders that he believed the company would have prevailed in the lawsuit but settled to avoid costly and lengthy litigation.

Sogluizzo lived "near the said property" in Lodi from 1974 through 1983, according to the lawsuit. He went to prison in New York in 1986 and was transferred to the New Jersey prison in 1988.

The property on West Hunter Avenue once belonged to Maywood Chemical Works. The now-defunct company used thorium -- a naturally occurring radioactive metal -- to make mantles for gas lanterns. During the 1950s, the government refined thorium for use as nuclear energy.

Stepan took over the property in 1956. The company makes chemicals used in industrial and household products, including soap, detergents, and insulation, according to its Web site.

The Army Corps of Engineers began cleaning up the contaminated soil and groundwater in the neighborhood surrounding the plant in 1984.

About 43 deaths were blamed on the contamination. Other residents say they have suffered from cancer, neurological disorders, and stress. A government report in 1997 revealed a higher-than-normal rate of cancers of the brain and nervous system among women living in neighborhoods with contaminated sites.

More than 286,000 people in the United States suffer from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, according to the Cure for Lymphoma Foundation. Janice Sogluizzo said her husband's disease is in stage 4, its most serious level.

"Looking at his health, how much time does he have left?" she wondered.

Staff Writer Paulo Lima's e-mail address is lima@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2001 North Jersey Media Group Inc.