Welding rod litigation status report (from the defense side)

The welding fumes battle continues. Here's the score, according to www.weldinginfonetwork.com, a website sympathetic to manufacturers in this battle (they call the welding rod litigation "ill-conceived business venture for plaintiffs’ counsel."

According to a PDF released on the group's site...

• In recent months, plaintiffs’ counsel have dismissed thousands of their cases
• New filings have decreased as well -- a decline of approximately 25% of welding fume claims
  pending in state and federal court, and more claims are being dismissed weekly.
  
• 40% of plaintiffs were never diagnosed with any neurological condition
• 70% of the allegedly sick claimants have never sought medical treatment
• 10 of 11 cases tried to juries have resulted in defense verdicts (the one loss was in pro-plaintiff Madison County Illinois)
• the federal court presiding over almost half of the welding claims pending
  in the U.S. (the MDL court) has established a case administration plan to re-evaluate all
  of the pending federal cases
• Six recent studies have confirmed that welders are not at increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, parkinsonism, manganism, or other, similar movement disorders.

Take this as you will, it is factual as best I can tell, but obviously biased in one direction.