Lawsuit Ties Cancer Diagnosis to Bullseye Glass

A woman who has never smoked or used any tobacco product ties her lung cancer diagnosis to airborne contamination from Bullseye Glass, located across the street.

Sixty-three-year-old Valerie Silva works at the Fred Meyer offices across the street and regularly walked by the factory on breaks and to exercise, according to her suit.

She has stage four lung cancer.

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Silva's suit charges Bullseye with negligence for allowing high levels of contamination into the air from the burning of heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium into the air.

The company, which had used the metals in its production of colored glass, stopped using them after the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality found the presence of heavy metals environment around the factory far exceeded levels considered safe.

An air monitor in the Fred Meyer parking lot found the levels of arsenic to be 159 times the level set by the state and the level of cadmium was 49 times higher than the maximum considered safe.