FRESNO, Calif. -- A company once owned by pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. exposed residents near its now-shuttered Merced plant to cancer-causing chemicals, then covered up the contamination for years and downplayed its severity, a lawyer said Thursday.
Fresno attorney Mick Marderosian made the allegations in opening statements in U.S. District Court in Fresno.
Marderosian is part of a legal team representing more than 2,000 residents of Merced's Beachwood subdivision, who claim the air they breathed and the water they drank were contaminated by the cancer-causing chemical hexavalent chromium -- which gained attention after the movie "Erin Brockovich."
