Five Women Sue TI, Claim Exposure to Chemicals Led to Their Childrens' Birth Defects

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Courthouse News has the suit, filed in Delaware Superior Court last week: Five women who worked in Texas Instruments' Dallas and Santa Cruz, California, facilities allege that exposure to "hazardous chemicals and substances" used to manufacture semiconductors resulted in their children suffering birth defects. Among the mothers' allegations: There was "no generalized ventilation system was configured specifically to protect workers from inhalation or skin exposure to liquids, vapors, gases and fumes from the chemicals." Among the defects listed -- everything from scoliosis, undescended testicles and partial blindness to attention-deficit hyperactivity and lazy eye.

Most of the the claims date back years; some, decades. Adraine Kirby says she worked in the Dallas plant from '95 to '97, during which time she says she worked in TI's "cleanrooms" while pregnant with son Adrian. Kirby says her son suffers from "pedal deformity" and ADHD. Katherine Fuchs's worked at TI's Dallas plant in the mid-1980s; she says her son was born blind in one eye.

The suit says the women only recently -- that is, within the last two years -- became aware of the fact "the injury was tortiously caused by defendant's misconduct." I've left messages for the mothers' Delaware attorney and for TI's New York counsel and will update when they respond.