Chicago Workers' Compensation Attorney Blog

According to the 2009 Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission annual report, roughly 200,000 work-related accidents involving Illinois workers are reported each year. Thankfully, most workers injured on the job do not lose time from work, nor do they experience lasting health effects from their accident.

For little more than a quarter of Illinois workers, however, or about 55,500 statewide and nearly 22,000 in the Chicago region alone, injuries were severe enough for them to file a workers’ compensation claim. If you or someone you know has been injured or killed in a Chicago work-related accident, contacting our Chicago workers’ compensation attorneys is a good first step to understanding your rights.

Other times, a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit should be filed, either in conjunction with a work accident claim or as a stand-alone case.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that 71 former Motorola employees and their families have filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the company, claiming that Motorola knew that chemicals used in sterile “clean rooms” were toxic and could cause birth defects in children born to the exposed.

The suit alleges that at least 30 children born to workers employed by the company between 1965-2007 demonstrate serious birth defects ranging from brain malformations to spina bifida to cerebral palsy and include other skeletal, physical and developmental defects.

Motorola declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

An investigation by CBS-5 revealed the chemical in question is called Ethylene Glycol Ether, a commonly used substance by a host of chip manufacturing companies through the 1990s.

The lawsuit further alleges that Motorola should have known about the potentially harmful reproductive effects upon the exposed after a 1986 John Hopkins University study. That study the effect of workplace exposure to certain chemicals and solvents including Glycol Ether.