Nine families or individuals who live throughout Gibbsboro filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Camden as a personal injury class action against Sherwin-Williams.

The lawsuit alleges Sherwin-Williams, a Fortune 500 company, contaminated the town’s soil and groundwater with unsafe levels of lead, arsenic and other carcinogens that have caused a cancer cluster in the borough.

The plant, a paint burn site, a separate dump, Kirkwood Lake, lakeside properties, and multiple connected streams and their banks are part of a Superfund cleanup site that stretches for 1.5 miles through Gibbsboro and into Voorhees. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is overseeing the project.

Some members of the nine plaintiff families have been diagnosed with cancer or other serious health conditions, including children and one child as young as 3 months old, the suit contends. The contamination has migrated to surrounding residences and businesses within Gibbsboro, causing a cancer cluster within the town, according to the lawsuit.

Most of the plaintiffs live outside the boundaries of the designated Superfund sites.

“It is my firm belief that there has been contaminant migration beyond some of the Superfund sites and that this has caused cancer among some of the plaintiff adults and their children, including a 3-month-old baby,” said Haddonfield lawyer Craig Mitnick, who represents the residents.

Read the full story and watch the video