Whirlpool wants Ohio cancer-cluster lawsuit tossed

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Whirlpool Corp. is asking a federal court in Ohio to throw out a civil lawsuit filed by families whose children have been among dozens sickened in a cancer cluster.

The company says the lawsuit linking its washing-machine factory in northern Ohio to the cancer cases is unfounded and irresponsible.

The lawsuit says that testing in the attics of homes around the city of Clyde found a chemical compound that is suspected of causing cancer.

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

The Blade newspaper in Toledo reports that Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool says that the allegations aren’t based on any scientific or medical fact.