Opinion ID: 1751837
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dr. Waddell Was Sufficiently Qualified in Relevant Areas of Study to Render Opinion.

Text: Burton contends that the trial court erroneously admitted Dr. Waddell's testimony based on his medical degree alone and that Dr. Waddell was not sufficiently qualified to render a helpful opinion on the specific relevant issues in this case. We note that Dr. Waddell did not directly address specific causation (whether Burton's individual ailments had been caused by solvent exposure or other factors), [18] but rather addressed general causation [19]  whether exposure to solvents had been proven to cause long-term cognitive impairment or brain damage. We agree with Burton that a medical degree, standing alone, would not be sufficient qualification to allow a doctor to express an opinion on this general causation issue without some showing of expertise in relevant specific areas of study. But Waddell was sufficiently qualified to review the literature and render an opinion on the specific issue of whether long-term occupational exposure to solvents had been conclusively shown to cause permanent cognitive impairment and brain damage. Before 1998, Dr. Waddell served as a professor and chaired the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Louisville Medical School. He devoted his career to academics and research rather than treating patients. He served on a national committee known as ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental and Industrial Hygienists). ACGIH set standards for workplace exposure to chemicals. Specifically, it set threshold limit values (TLVs) for various chemicalsin other words, the maximum amount of a chemical that a worker could safely be exposed to during a regular forty-hour workweek for a lifetime. Dr. Waddell testified that he chaired the ACGIH sub-committee that set the standards for chlorinated hydrocarbons, the chemical name for most substances at issue or main component of most substances at issue. He reviewed the scientific literature on effects of occupational exposure to chlorinated hydrocarbons for several years because these solvents are chemically quite similar to general anesthetics, which are actually organic [20] solvents, a subject on which he has delivered lectures to medical students for years. He also testified in his deposition to having done human and animal studies, although it is not clear what the subjects of these studies were. [21] So it is apparent that Dr. Waddell was certainly well educated on the specific subjects of toxicology (how exposure to substances can have harmful effects on the human body); safety issues concerning workplace exposure to chlorinated hydrocarbons; and, in general, the scientific research method. The fact that he devoted his career to academics and research rather than treating patients does not, by itself, make him less qualified or his testimony less reliable or less helpful to the jury. [22]