ARTICLE - METRO FIELD VICTIMS CAN GET TESTED FOR FREE

Baseball field was contaminated

By Greg Wilson
Journal staff writer

One of the nation's biggest corporations has agreed to pay for medical monitoring of possibly hundreds of children and adults who played on a chromium-contaminated baseball field on Jersey City's West Side.

Under a settlement announced yesterday, Allied Signal, a Morristown-based conglomerate, will pay for 30 years of monitoring at Christ Hospital in Jersey city for anyone who played at least 10 games or participated in 20 hours of recreation at Metro Field before the 1992 cleanup.

Chromium, a toxic heavy metal, is hazardous to inhale or touch and can burn the nose, throat and skin. Prolonged exposure can cause lung cancer and damage the liver and kidneys.

Treatment may include initial screening exams, periodic mailings and follow-up testing. Anyone who can substantiate that he or she meets the criteria is eligible to take part in the settlement, which was approved by state Superior Court Judge Seymour Margulies in Jersey City.

Allied will also pay for Piscataway-based Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute to monitor the program. Anyone who believes they or their children meet the criteria should call the institute at 908-445-0200.

"This settlement reflects Allied Signal's desire to act as a responsible corporate neighbor in resolving community concerns, including those of children, by establishing a medical monitoring program," said the plaintiffs' lead attorney, Angelo J. Cifaldi of the Woodbridge law firm Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer.

Plaintiffs in the case, the first tort class action to be certified in New Jersey, will not be awarded cash.

But the settlement preserves their right to pursue personal injury actions for any injury caused by exposure to chromium, co-counsel Alfred M. Anthony said.

The Jersey Journal reported in 1992 that soil samples taken from the field showed chromium contamination more than 300 times the state danger level. Allied paid for the cleanup of the field under the threat of a suit by the state Department of Environmental Protection.