LANCASTER, PA – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week denied an appeal by a trio of chemical manufacturers named in a lawsuit alleging that a former employee of Armstrong World Industries suffered brain damage from chemical solvents used at Armstrong’s Lancaster floor plant.

Brenntag Northeast Inc., Dow Chemical Co. and Mallinckrodt Baker Inc., each named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed in 2010, had asked the state supreme court to reconsider a decision earlier this year by the Superior Court that remanded the case back to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. According to Lancaster Online, the Superior Court had dismissed the lawsuit for being past the statute of limitations.

In her lawsuit, Sandra Cooper alleged that her husband, Gene, a 35-year veteran at the Armstrong flooring plant, was exposed to toxic chemicals made by the defendant companies, including trichloroethylene (TCE), Lancaster Online reported. Armstrong was not named in the 2010 lawsuit, but is the subject of a separate lawsuit filed in August. The second lawsuit alleges that Armstrong withheld information about the chemicals Gene Cooper was exposed to.

Armstrong World Industries, a manufacturer of flooring, ceiling and other building products, had sales of $2.6 billion in 2012. Armstrong sold its cabinet division last November to American Industrial Partners of New York.