Families in Ohio cancer cluster suing Whirlpool

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Families whose children have been among dozens sickened in an Ohio cancer cluster are hoping they have pinpointed a cause for the illnesses.

More than two dozen family members say in a federal lawsuit filed in Toledo that testing in the attics of homes around the northern Ohio city of Clyde found a chemical compound that is suspected of causing cancer.

The families say in the civil lawsuit that the compound came from a Whirlpool Corp. plant that is within a rural area where 35 children have been diagnosed with cancer and three have died since the mid-1990s.

The suit is seeking damages from Whirlpool.

Michigan-based Whirlpool says in a statement that it will vigorously defend itself against the allegations.