Contract Worker Sues Mobil Over Lung Injuries

A contract worker who says his lungs were damaged while he was cleaning caustic chemicals from pipes at Mobil Oil’s Torrance refinery has filed suit against the company.

John M. Ferguson, 34, contends in a lawsuit filed in Torrance Superior Court Monday that he was not given proper safety gear before he began work July 7, 1990.

Refinery spokesman Jim Carbonetti called the claim “incredible.”

“From mid-June to July 7,” Carbonetti said, “there were 25,000 man-hours of labor that went on in this unit safely without an incident . . . until this claim.”

Carbonetti said the pipes had been neutralized with gaseous ammonia, which he said “pervades all parts of the unit.”

Ferguson’s attorney, Gary A. Imburg, said he believes his client--an employee of Western Industrial Maintenance--was exposed to hydrofluoric acid while cleaning the joints of pipes that once carried the deadly substance.

Mobil workers had assured Ferguson that the pipes had been flushed of all traces of the acid, Imburg said.

“He went in there to do the scraping as he was ordered to do, and he was inhaling fine, fine particles of what he was grinding up,” Imburg said. “They gave him protective clothing, but they didn’t give him any kind of respirator.”

Although Ferguson first began to feel ill while working, he did not realize he was in trouble until he was driving back to his Hemet home after his shift, the attorney said.

“All of a sudden, blood and tissue started coming out of his nose,” Imburg said. “It would have had to have been some kind of caustic material to do something like that so suddenly.”

Mobil sent Ferguson to a worker’s compensation doctor, who prescribed medication and kept him out of work for several days.

When he returned to work, Ferguson was ordered to complete the job he had started--again, without respiratory protection, Imburg said.

Ultimately, Ferguson lost his senses of smell and taste, Imburg said. In addition, his lung capacity has declined by at least one-third.

He currently is unemployed and receiving disability payments, Imburg said.

“I don’t think anybody understands how precious their nose is to them until they lose it,” Imburg said. “A nose is a very delicate thing, and it’s absolutely vital for your survival in the industry he was working in.”