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Welding Industry Lawsuits Don't Stop Quarterly
Profits
Welding industry lawsuits against Lincoln Electric Holding, Inc.
have not stopped their quarterly profits. Lincoln Electric has
reported a 20-percent sales increase in the fourth quarter of
2006, to $505.9 million.
Lincoln Electric Holding has been involved
in several welding industry lawsuits and in March 2006 a
judge ruled that a case against the company can go forward.
Lawyers for several defendants are suing Lincoln Electric
saying that the low-manganese welding rods they had used
contributed to the development Parkinson's syndrome.
In 2001, Dr. Brad Racette, a neurologist at Washington
University School of Medicine, published a study linking
welding fumes from manganese rods to Parkinson's disease.
The study found that a group of welders had developed
Parkinson's disease 15 years earlier than normal.
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Since the publication of Racette's study, over 10,000 welding
industry lawsuits have been filed. General Electric, Caterpillar,
Inc., and Airco Inc., have also been named in similar product
liability lawsuits in Southern California.
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