Ex-Comcast Utility Worker Sues Over Verizon’s ‘Fraudulent Concealment’ of Lead Cables
Former Comcast utility worker Greg Bostard routinely had to climb over Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables to reach and service Comcast’s cables mounted on the same poles, and his “direct and regular exposure” to toxic lead caused him “a present injury” that increases the risk he will develop more “catastrophic health effects,” alleged his negligence class action Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-08564) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Camden.
Bostard’s complaint seeks medical monitoring “to permit early detection of future lead-related conditions,” and “abatement” to remove and properly dispose of the lead-sheathed cables. Unlike the previous class actions against Verizon and AT&T that seek to hold senior executives accountable for securities fraud for covering up the toxic-lead environmental hazards, Bostard’s complaint is the first-known lawsuit that purports to protect front-line utility workers from serious health conditions caused by their day-to-day exposure. The New Jersey resident worked for Comcast for 29 years.
Verizon’s toxic lead cables “have been poisoning the surrounding environments for decades,” said Bostard’s class action. Telecom workers have reported that lead-sheathed telecommunications cables “often have a dusting of silvery lead so soft and thick people would at times scribble messages in it,” it said: “Numerous studies over the past 50 years have shown that telecom workers who work with or near the cables have elevated levels of lead in their bodies.”
Utility workers are uniquely harmed by Verizon’s failure “to properly assess and dispose of the cables” and the lead that has leached the cables into the surrounding environment, said Bostard’s complaint. “Their jobs put them in constant contact with these cables and the environmental media which surrounds them,” it said. “They must manhandle these cables to do their jobs,” it said.
When Bostard had to climb the utility poles to reach Comcast’s cables, his clothes and body “would regularly rub against Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables,” said his complaint. He also used Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables to hook in while he worked on Comcast’s aerial cables, it said. To hook in, he would use his hands to wrap a strap around Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables, it said.
As Bostard perspired, “he would rub his face, including his eyes and mouth, with his hands that had been in direct contact with Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables,” said his complaint. During lunch, Bostard would use his hands to eat, it said: “As a result, he was in direct and regular contact with Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables and ingested and inhaled lead from Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables during the course of his 29-year career.”
Symptoms or health effects from lead exposure “can appear in the absence of significant current exposure because lead from past exposures can be stored in the body for decades,” said the complaint. It’s thus important “that individuals with historical lead exposure receive special medical monitoring,” it said. Current and former utility workers with “occupational exposure” to Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables “are at a uniquely high risk of lead exposure and the onset of future lead-related conditions,” it said.
Verizon was aware of the risks presented by the toxic lead cables but took no “meaningful action” to mitigate those risks, said the complaint. For decades, Verizon and its predecessors, “dating back to the old Bell system, have known that the lead in their networks was a possible health risk to their workers and had the potential to leach into the nearby environment,” it said.
There’s a risk that lead stored in the body from a prior exposure “may not manifest into a lead-related condition for years or decades,” said the complaint. That’s why Bostard and members of his proposed class “presently require medical surveillance to monitor the extent and effect of their exposure” to Verizon’s toxic lead-sheathed cables, it said.
Medical monitoring will permit “the earliest possible diagnosis of illnesses, which could lead to improved outcomes, prolongation of life, relief of pain, and minimization of disability,” said the complaint. Verizon provides a health monitoring program, including lead testing, to its own employees but doesn’t pay “the cost of medical monitoring for other individuals exposed to lead from their toxic lead-sheathed cables,” including utility workers like Bostard who worked for Comcast, it said.
Bostard and his proposed class members “assert all applicable statutory and common law rights and theories related to the tolling or extension of any applicable statute of limitations,” including equitable tolling, delayed discovery and “fraudulent concealment,” said the complaint. The discovery rule “applies to toll the running of the statute of limitations” until Verizon knew, or should have known, of facts that Bostard had been injured, plus “the tortious nature of the wrongdoing that caused the injury,” it said.
As a result of Verizon’s “misrepresentations and concealment,” Bostard and members of the proposed class were unaware they had been exposed to the risks of lead exposure, or that those risks “were the direct and proximate result” of Verizon’s “wrongful acts” or omissions, said the complaint. In light of Verizon’s “affirmative actions of concealment” by failing to disclose the known but non-public information about the risks of lead exposure, Verizon is “estopped from relying on any statutes of limitations or repose that might otherwise be applicable to the claims asserted herein,” it said. Verizon didn’t comment Thursday.