The Utah Court of Appeals ruled that a former BASF Corp. employee’s ailments were directly caused by years of chemical exposure while working for the manufacturer of automotive finishes and other industrial products.
For nearly 30 years, Bradley West was exposed to chemicals that several doctors linked to his medical conditions, according to the ruling in BASF Corp. v. Labor Commission, filed Sept. 21.
In the months following an incident in 2015 in which Mr. West accidentally spilled a can of resin on himself, he began complaining of worsening symptoms — difficulty breathing, coughing, congestion, sinus pain and clogged ears — that he initially thought were related to seasonal allergies. The following year he began coughing while giving a product demonstration and coughed for two hours, losing consciousness twice, according to the ruling.
A biopsy in 2016 revealed he was suffering from a condition consistent with chronic eosinophilic pneumonia, likely linked to occupational exposures, several experts concluded.
A medical panel, following the instructions of an administrative law judge, determined that Mr. West’s conditions were “due to exposures at his work, specifically isocyanates … a known immunologic cause of occupational asthma,” according to the ruling.
The judge ordered BASF to pay Mr. West compensation for past and future medical expenses and total disability compensation. BASF appealed, and a second medical panel concurred that Mr. West’s “occupational disease is largely, if not all, attributable to industrial causes.”
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed the administrative law judge’s ruling, writing that the evidence presented by two medical panels supported the conclusion that repeated exposure to industrial chemicals caused Mr. West’s medical conditions.