"The safe limits for the industrial chemicals alleged in lawsuits to have caused brain cancers in McCullom Lake are measured in parts per billion.

In one evening in February 1978, an outdoor accident at one of the defendant manufacturers might have spilled enough to fill 20 bathtubs.

A railroad car valve at the Morton chemical plant in Ringwood was left open for about eight hours and leaked 1,000 gallons of pure vinylidene chloride into the ground, according to the final draft of a 1986 report commissioned by the company.

The chemical is one of several blamed in 30 lawsuits since 2006 for brain and pituitary cancers in the McCullom Lake area."

Kevin P. Craver reports for the (Illinois) Northwest Herald December 29, 2009. [2]