WHY AREN'T YOU OUTRAGED??

Now that it's an election year, I would like to ask Congress and all the candidates running for Congress including Presidential candidates, how long are they going to violate the citizens of the United States by letting these practices go on? Congress sounded outraged about this issue when they proposed a 1994 law included in Chapter 57 of the Transportation Code (quoted further on in this letter).

The government has already attacked the Tobacco companies on the health issues of cigarette smoking. Yet it seems that the government will let these other corporations poison the future of the United States (by this I mean children and future generations) by doing it without their knowledge. If this were done in another country, it would be viewed as an act of terrorism. Yet so far in this country, it has been viewed as good business. Congress has done little to focus attention on this issue and change things in this industry. The issue is the disregard of safety by some trucking companies on how your food is hauled. I feel that since we have entered a new millennium, we should get to see the end of this practice so that our future generations can see the next millennium and beyond.

Did WR Grace put an end to their toxic legacy? Did they find a new medium by which to spread poison by teaming up with MPC Trucking otherwise known as Monsey Products Corporation?

The Monsey Products Corporation makes driveway sealer, roof coatings, and several different kinds of paint. MPC Trucking, (the trucking subsidiary of Monsey Products Corporation), hauled a majority of the parent companies products as well as the raw material to make said products, such as asbestos, formaldehyde and other toxic and hazardous materials. They also hauled chemicals and other toxic materials for other companies such as Exide Battery, where some of the batteries are shipped with acid in them going to the stores and the return batteries load usually had a few that leaked and the acid would run all over the trailer floor. There were some companies MPC was commissioned to haul for that were sending chemicals, (barrels and containers that no longer had labels), to be destroyed, some of these containers would leak all over the floor. I have the manifest for one such load where after I delivered the load to be destroyed, I was instructed to drop the empty trailer in Temple, Pennsylvania at a food distributor. I do not know if this particular trailer was reloaded with food product.

WR Grace was not the only place MPC hauled food product for; we also hauled sugar for Amstar Sugar. The companies we delivered the sugar to produced large quantities of food such as cookies. Sometimes these companies used ultra violet lights to check the top layer of the bags, to see if they had any mouse droppings or urine stains. But what they never checked was the floors and the walls of the trailer. While unloading these trailers with their forklifts, whatever was on the floor in the trailer would be tracked into the building along with the load of food product. These were the same trailers we used to haul asbestos.

However WR Grace's involvement is a little more important because they have refused to load MPC's trailers from time to time because the trailers were soiled with coal tar and other contaminants visible to the eye. Other times they would take two Styrofoam sheets that were four feet wide and the length of the trailer to protect the load from what was on the floor, but they never protected the walls or the ceiling. This should be easy to verify, there where a number of other drivers that were both owner operators and drivers for owner operators who have witnessed this practice. Therefore I am of the opinion that WR Grace knowingly loaded contaminated trailers with their food product that was packaged in perforated plastic bags. The only thing that all the food companies that MPC was hired to haul for had in common was the method by which they cleaned the trailers before loading them. This method was a simple push broom to sweep the trailer out. And everybody knows what happens when you sweep, it creates dust. Asbestos is an airborne contaminant that travels in dust and when swept clings to whatever is around.

On April 6, 1992 I was contaminated while unloading food product at a food warehouse in Vermont. Attorney Lewis of Catskill, NY, filed a personal injury lawsuit on my behalf against MPC Trucking, and WR Grace. At the advice of my Counsel I also followed through with a filed Workman's Compensation Case in Pennsylvania. MPC Trucking had taken 3.5% of my pay for workmen's compensation without my authorization since February 1991. When I first filed this case, MPC denied I had worked for them and then suddenly retracted that statement. The out-come of this case in the Pennsylvania court was that I was not an employee of the company and therefore was not entitled to any Workmans Comp benefits.

I would like to point out that this is not the first time I was hurt working for MPC Trucking. The first time I was only working at MPC a couple of months when a piece of coal tar hit me in the center of the eye and I had to go to the eye doctor (see bill enclosed for Capital District Eye Surgery Associates) to get it removed. I missed a couple days of work over this and when I handed the bill to Mr. Gallagher he told me I was an owner operator and MPC Trucking was not liable for my injury even if it did come off of their equipment. The second time, I was unloading Styrofoam trays from WR Grace at Star Markets in Massachusetts. A fork lift operator from Star Markets sandwiched my foot between some pallets and broke my toes. I went to Norwood Hospital in Massachusetts where they set my toes and told me to stay off my feet for a couple of weeks. In this case MPC instructed me to give them the bills and they would take care of them. I thought this was being taken care of by the Workers comp Insurance that 3.5% of every one of my pay check was suppose to be paying for.

Because I was under the impression that I might be covered by Workmans Comp and under advisement of Counsel, I filed a Workmans Comp Claim in Pennsylvania. When I received the decision from Judge Lloyd P Nyce Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry Bureau of Workers' Compensation I was quite surprised. After he determined that I was not an employee and this was not a Workmans Comp Case he proceeded to hand down a 10 page Decision Document. What follows is how I feel the decision is compromised. I'm only going to go over key elements of this decision because of its length.

I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Gallagher (Vice President of MPC Trucking) gave false testimony in #51 of this document. Mr. Gallagher said I was often out ill in late 1991. This is false, I was not out because of illness but because of a chronic problem with the injectors of the truck Mr. Gallagher was selling me. I have all the receipts for the breakdowns. He also states that the illness stemmed from drinking water from my home well. This also false because my wife and 4 children did not get sick. I did get sick once but the doctors found it was something I drank on the road. I was a truck driver and was not home 5 to 6 days a week. In #53 the judge accepts the testimony of Mr. Gallagher as credible, because it is consistent with the lease agreements. Yet not everything in my lease agreement was consistent. Case in point, the day I injured my foot in Norwood MA, I was dispatched to Kimberton, Pennsylvania. Here Jim Kott, the safety director for MPC, made it very clear to me that if I took any time off as advised by the Drs who saw my foot, MPC would repossess my truck. He then told me he would give me loads where I would not have to unload. Not that loading and unloading was ever in my contract. As stated in Interstate Commerce Transportation Law 49-11107(b), "The commission shall require, by regulation, that any arrangement, between motor carrier of property providing transportation subject to jurisdiction of the Commission under subchapter II of chapter 105 of this title and any other person, under which such other person is to provide any portion of such transportation by a motor vehicle not owned by the carrier shall specify, in writing, who is responsible for loading and unloading the property onto and from the motor vehicle.(Pub.L. 95-473 Oct. 17, 1978)" Yet MPC never stated anything in my contract. They did however have me haul product that was my responsibility to load and unload. Therefore, MPC Trucking violated the lease and the consistency of the lease from the moment I signed it.

In #47 it points out that Mr. Gallagher had not provided any supervision of my driving trips and gave no instructions as to what routes I was to take. Yet I have routing sheets from MPC Trucking that tell exactly what roads to take, how many miles to travel on that road and when to turn on to the next road. Wouldn't you say that was instructions on what routes to take? I find it interesting that in #60 the judge finds that I suffered an injury on April 6, 1992. All through the trial this judge was told that I was exposed to a chemical or toxic hazardous material. Judge Nyce never upheld the Right To Know Law which states your employer must inform you of the health effects and hazards of toxic substances at your work site. So here he is agreeing that I was indeed exposed to something but he never pushed to find out what and I have yet to be informed of what it could have been. I feel that Judge Nyce violated my rights as an American citizen and the rights of all the people that have eaten from the contaminated trays that were delivered to C&S Warehouse. These trays were possibly delivered to the following states, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York as Far West as Buffalo. Each pack of trays had between 500 or 1,000 trays per package. So, this means that there were potentially between 400,000 to 600,000 families contaminated with this one load. This is not including other food product loads over the years that were carried in contaminated trailers, (because of the lack of the respect for the asbestos that was hauled in these trailers and only swept with a broom). I would also like you to note that this practice is not confined to the Northeast. MPC also has terminals in Indiana, Texas, South Carolina, and Florida, besides the main terminal in Pennsylvania. They use to have a terminal in Waterford, NY, but this is presently closed. As you can see MPC delivers to a good portion of the USA.

Another bit of information that I feel Judge Nyce over looked was he was dealing with food product being contaminated and brought to a food warehouse. In Chapter 57 of the Transportation Code, there is reference to Sanitary Food Transportation Laws, Finding 5701 "Congress finds that (1) The United States public is entitled to receive food and other consumer products that are not made unsafe because of certain transportation practices; (2) The United States public is threatened by the transportation of products potentially harmful to consumers in motor vehicles and rail vehicles that are used to transport food and other consumer products; and (3) The risks to consumers by those transportation practices are unnecessary and those practices must be ended. (Added Pub.L. 103-272,10 dJuly 5,1994, 108 Stat.854.)"

Further, Finding 5706 refrences Dedicated vehicles:
(a) Prohibitions. The regulations prescribed under section 5703 (a) (1) of this title shall include provisions prohibiting a person from using, offering for use, or arranging for the use of a motor vehicles or rail vehicle to transport asbestos, in forms or quantities the Secretary of Transportation decides are necessary, or products that present an extreme danger to humans or animals, despite any decontamination removal disposal packaging or other isolation procedures, unless the motor vehicle or rail vehicle is used only to transport one or more of the following: Asbestos, those extremely dangerous products, or refuse.
(b) List of applicable products. After consultation required by section 5709 of this title, the Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register a list of the products to which this section applies. The Secretary may amend the list periodically by publication in the Federal Register (Added Pub.L.103-272, 1(d), July 5.1994, 108 State 857.)

There were previous laws to this effect under Title 49 of the Transportation Code which went into effect November 3,1990 which to my knowledge were never enforced by the Secretary of Transportation. In these laws, under general regulation 5703 it stated that: "… (1) Not later than July 31, 1991, the Secretary of Transportation, after consultation required by section 5709 of this title, shall prescribe regulations on the transportation of cosmetics, devices, drugs, food, and food additives in Motor vehicles and rail vehicles that are used to transport nonfood products that would make the cosmetics, devices, drugs, food or food additives unsafe to humans or animals."

I would also like to point out THE HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TRANSPORTATION ACT OF 1974 under "resources covered", they state that "Transportation of hazardous materials, including but not limited to, solvents, asbestos, PCBs', paints, pesticides, hazardous wastes, etc." was included in the list of what should not be hauled with human consumables. Now I would like to point out that MPC Trucking uses solvents to clean up the driveway sealer, roof coating, as well as the paint that spills in the trailers and is transported for the parent company Monsey Products Corp, Inc. They haul asbestos for the same parent company for the making of the roof coating. And they did not dedicate any of these trailers to only these products; they shared these same trailers with food product. I was contaminated in one of these trailers.

The people who may be the most interested in the outcome of this case are the people living with HIV/AIDS, many of these people die without knowing why. They are doing fine and all of a sudden they die. Were they contaminated by something they ingested without knowing about it? These people are more are susceptible to toxins and contaminates than the rest of the population. Were they poisoned? How about the increase in illnesses that Drs have no explanation for, could the trigger be coming from trailers such as these?

Another industry that should welcome the change (should this case set a precedent that would help enforce these laws) is the Insurance Industry. When people don't get sick as often they make more money. In 10 to 20 years when all these cases of asbestos and toxic poisonings come to light, who is going to pay for these peoples' medical bills? These corporations aren't owning up to it now. What makes you think they're going to own up to it in 20 years? All they're going to say is, prove we were the ones that contaminated you. And there will be no proof because of what the people don't know now, asbestos and other contaminates were hauled in the same trailer with the food product that they prepared and ate. In fact, Congress admits that these practices make it easy for these industries to do potential harm to consumers.

I have questions for the elected officials on why and how much longer they are going to allow these conditions to last but they are too numerous to list here. I also have a few suggestions. Two of them are very simple. One would be to take the handcuffs off of OSHA, currently they only have 6 months to investigate a claim, but these chemicals that people are ingesting can last anywhere from 20-30 years. Some, like asbestos, don't get noticed until it is virtually too late for the victim. Suggestion number 2. To put a letter F on the inspection sticker on a trailer that hauls food and food products and have a true dedicated fleet. Anyone hauling anything other than food or food product in these trailers should be suspended from hauling food or food product and severely fined To enforce this should not cost my fellow tax payers anything extra. DOT already inspects all truck and trailers; this could be just one more inspection point. It shouldn't be too hard in matching food product paperwork to a letter F on the trailer. The Styrofoam food trays that they put your food on should definitely be considered a food product. We pay millions of dollars to inspectors to insure our meats are of the utmost quality. Yet, they have been putting this quality meat on contaminated trays. Is this meat still of the utmost quality after being contaminated?

I feel if this case is heard it could possibly change the life of every United States citizen. Especially if these industries were made to take responsibility for their negligent and erroneous actions and were not allowed to ignore the laws and regulations set forth by the government that are designed to protect all citizens. So, as you can see, this case is not about just my family and I, it's about all of the people in the United States.

Yet this case may not be heard. At present my lawyer is trying to relieve himself of this case and leave me without counsel. I really believe this case needs to be heard. I think this information about these companies' unsafe practices needs to come out. I'm outraged by these practices, "WHERE'S YOUR OUTRAGE?"

Thursday, January 13, 2000

Respectfully,
Charles Lake

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