Environmental Research Foundation . . P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403 . .
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To subscribe, E-mail the words . . It was the first time that criminal charges had been brought in NY against corporate executives for wrongful exposure of workers to toxic chemicals. The indictment says that one of the 80 employees of the plant suffered permanent brain damage from mercury poisoning and the defendants were charged with assaulting the man with mercury as the weapon. According to the state attorney general, an undetermined number of other employees were endangered by the mercury, a chemical that has been linked to kidney damage and loss of vision. The Pymm defendants established a covert mercury-recovery operation in Apr. 1983 in the cellar of the plant and managed to hide it from federal inspectors until Oct. 1985.