ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605290063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PROVIDENCE, R.I.
SOURCE: Associated Press
A man who claimed he got cancer from using a defoliant containing a chemical found in Agent Orange was awarded $1.2 million by a jury.
A lawyer for plaintiff Terry DiPetrillo said Thursday's verdict marked the first time a jury has found that the chemical 2,4,5-T causes cancer.
A lawyer for the defendant, Dow Chemical Co., said the company would probably appeal. Dow has never conceded claims by Vietnam veterans that their exposure to Agent Orange caused a variety of health problems.
``We do not believe that the evidence established it was Dow's product that Mr. DiPetrillo used, and we certainly don't believe the verdict established Mr. DiPetrillo's cancer was caused by any product the Dow Chemical Co. made,'' said John Tarantino.
DiPetrillo, 47, said he contracted cancer from exposure to 2,4,5-T. He said he used a Dow product similar to Agent Orange daily during the summers he cleared trees from high-tension wires for the Narragansett Electric Co. from 1968 to 1972.
He suffered no ill effects for years and even scoffed after hearing Vietnam veterans were suing over illnesses they claimed were related to Agent Orange.
``I'd used the stuff daily and was soaked in it and I was fine,'' he said.
After breaking his shoulder in October 1990, DiPetrillo was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer.
Agent Orange, also manufactured by Dow, was used by the military during the Vietnam War and was never sold commercially. However, Dow did sell a commercial defoliant with most, but not all, of the ingredients in Agent Orange, including 2,4,5-T, according to Dow spokesman Scot Wheeler.
That product, called Esteron, was sold to clear foliage along utility lines, but Dow claimed at trial that what DiPetrillo used was not Esteron.
Chemical companies in the 1980s settled an Agent Orange class-action lawsuit by Vietnam veterans by establishing a $180 million fund for the plaintiffs.
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