Hard Metals Disease

Description: shocking story of the Valenite Corporation, which exposes the hidden truths of occupational disease in the workplace. "More Americans have died from occupational disease in the past 40 years than in all our wars combined. Virtually all of these 100,000 annual deaths are preventable. "If I poisoned someone they would put me away for life, but the company I worked for poisoned me and got away with it," says one disabled worker. Cathy Calzaretta was only 18 when she began to work for Valenite in California. Within three years her lungs were destroyed. Hard Metals Disease is a shocking story of the Valenite Corporation, a subsidiary of General Telephone and Electric (GTE). It is an international corporation with factories in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. This investigative documentary spends four years following Valenite's activities. The trail of dead and sick workers Valenite left behind raises questions about corporate responsibility, as disabled workers with proven cases of hard metals disease have been unable to present their cases in court because of legal loopholes that protect the company."