Orlando, Fla. - Attorney Michael Degan provided a detailed update on welding fume litigation to the members of the Gases and Welding Distributors Association Oct. 16, noting that there has been much more good news than bad news over the last year.

Speaking at the GAWDA annual convention, Degan also noted that not all the news is good, and that welding fume litigation remains a threat to many companies in the welding industry. Degan, a lawyer with the firm of Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin LLP of Omaha, Neb., is counsel to GAWDA members on welding fume and other issues.

He said one of the most significant events that was positive for the welding industry was the federal jury trial in which the jury ruled for the welding industry.

The federal jury found that welding rod makers are not liable for injuries that the plaintiff claimed in the suit, which was a part of a grouping of thousands of similar lawsuits filed across the nation. The jury in the federal lawsuit deliberated for four days, and on June 27, returned to the courtroom to report that it rejected Texas welder Ernest G. Solis's injury claims.

Solis alleged that welding fumes caused him injury, and that warning labels on welding rods did not provide sufficient cautions to welders.

Defendants in the suit included Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc., Hobart Brothers Co., TDY Industries Inc. and ESAB Group, and there was concern that welding equipment distributors could be brought into similar suits if that suit was successful.

The Solis lawsuit was one of four bellwether cases. Degan said that all four cases were ones that the plaintiffs' attorneys thought would be their best out of nearly 3,800 similar pending suits claiming that neurological damage caused by welding fumes have produced symptoms in welders similar to Parkinson's disease. The three other bellwether cases were dismissed for a variety of reasons, according to Degan, and the remaining suits have been consolidated under Federal Court Judge Kathleen O'Malley's jurisdiction, in Cleveland, Ohio.

In addition, Degan said Judge O'Malley has placed new requirements on the plaintiffs' attorneys, requiring fact sheets on all of the plaintiffs in all of the pending cases to be delivered to her and to the defendants' attorneys before the end of the year. It is expected that fact sheet data will eliminate many of those pending cases.

"We expect to see a significant number of dismissals," Degan said at the GAWDA meeting. Judge O'Malley is requiring the fact sheets in part because the welding industry has won 11 out of 12 welding fume trials including the Solis trial.

Besides the good news from the courtroom, Degan noted that there have been several epidemiological reports published in the last year that have provided views opposite to a 2001 study seen to be the report that stimulated the lawsuits over welding fumes. He cited studies done in Denmark and Sweden in the last year that indicate there is less scientific reason to believe welding fumes are direct causes of injuries to welders.

One of the consequences of the losses in the courtroom and the new medical studies on welding fumes is that 40 percent fewer lawsuits related to welding fumes were filed this year, compared to 2005.

So, Degan said: "There is a declining number of lawsuits. The plaintiffs are losing lawsuits in court because there are few really sick plaintiffs, despite the number of lawsuits filed, and there is a national trend toward fewer tort cases."

All of these combine to provide good news for the welding industry as a whole, and for welding equipment distributors specifically, Degan said, adding that with fewer suits being filed and with increased losses for the plaintiffs, the chances are reduced for welding equipment distributors to be added to complaints about welding fumes.

However, Degan said there is some bad news that accompanies these good reports.

"The industry is not out of the woods yet," he said. He noted that there remain thousands of lawsuits over injuries allegedly caused by welding fumes in state and federal courts, and that he expects the plaintiffs to win some of those suits.

"If plaintiffs win their suits, the tide could turn quickly," Degan said, noting that there are more than 700,000 welders throughout the United States, making a large pool of potential complainants.