H. B. FULLER, INC. ''Public-enemy number . . . ?'' Could H.B. Fuller adhesives, killing tens of thousands of Latin street children, also be responsible for gluing smokers' lungs closed ?
H. B. FULLER, INC.“Public-enemy number . . . ?” Could H.B. Fuller adhesives, killing tens of thousands of Latin street children, also be responsible for gluing smokers' lungs closed ? General information: The transnational corporation H. B. Fuller – no relation to Fuller Brush – has deep roots. Founded in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1887, by Harvey Benjamin Fuller as a one-man wallpaper-paste shop, it now has operation facilities in 43 countries. H. B. Fuller's Stock Symbol is ''FUL''. Its glues – in more than 10,000 varieties – hold together everything from automobile parts to cigarette parts—using its adhesives to glue together cigarette-related paper, filters and even the cigarette tobacco—and from disposable diapers to shoes, et al. The company was run for years by Elmer L. Andersen, a former Minnesota Governor. Lee R. Mitau appears to be the currant board chairman presiding over Fuller board of directors Thomas W. Handley; J. Michael Losh; James J. Owens; Dante C. Parini; Alfredo L. Rovira; John C. van Roden, Jr.; and, R. William Van Sant. Board director James J. Owens also appears to be Fuller's President / Chief Executive Officer. Tim Keenan appears to be Fuller's Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Fuller's ''Annual Meeting of Shareholders'' appears to take place on the second Thursday of April. Fuller's public accounting firm appears to be KPMG, LLP. Fuller's 2013 ''Master Incentive Plan'' appears to focus on promotion of shareholder interest by way of attracting new employees, officers and consultants capable of insuring Fuller's future success via offering those people proprietary incentive in the company, e.g., stock options, thereby aligning themselves with the shareholders' interests. Fuller's Executive Officers appear to be: Jim Giertz – SVP and CFO; Traci Jensen – SVP, Americas Adhesives; Steven Kenny – SVP, EMEA; Patrick Trippel – SVP, Market Development; Kevin Gilligan – VP, Global Operations; James McCreary, Jr. – VP, Corporate Controller; Ann Parriott – VP, Human Resources; Cheryl Reinitz – VP, Treasurer. Marketing Fuller's products at trade shows and diverse production at their plants in Latin America, India and China, has purportedly produced another record-setting year for Fuller sales, production and profits in 2012, with net revenue up 21%; organic sales up between 6 and 10%; net income or EPS up 16%; stock price up 47%; and 2012 dividends increased for the 44th consecutive year, reaching the highest increase in 25 years. Fuller's goals for 2015 are 5 – 8 % Organic Growth in Hygiene, Packaging and Durable Assembly, combined with an EBITDA margin of 15%, reaching $2.4 billion in revenue and $360 million in EBITDA. Strategies: Investing and leveraging sales and marketing expertise; Global investment and growth; Innovations in chemistry and application. Just a few of the numerous, more recent Fuller acquisitions include a $575 million-dollar industrial adhesive company named ''Forbo'' – ''Bringing the future into focus. Faster.'' (Forbo's marketing slogan) Another Fuller strategy: Margin improvement by completing the integration of Forbo's industrial adhesives business with growth in emerging markets, notably Latin America and Asia, by building strong infrastructures; and effectively managing margins through cycles of raw material cost inflation and deflation. In 2012, Fuller also acquired an electronics company named ''Engent'' (slogan: ''Enabling next generation technologies''). Also in 2012, Fuller opened a new 7,000-square-meter manufacturing facility, which has been built at Shirwal, in Pune, India, in order to satisfy its expanded sales-growth marketing requirements into the Indian market until the year 2020. In 2011, Fuller acquired ''Liquamelt Corp.'', and patented ''Liquamelt™'' adhesive system. Fuller appears to have divested itself of its Latin America high-lead-content paints ''Grupo'' ''Kativo''. Fuller allegedly improved its safety record in 2012. Also, due to its alleged concern for its employees and the community, Fuller received awards for being one of the world's 200 most ethical companies in 2012 and 2013 – ''It's a core value at Fuller, to win the right way. That means, for us, winning ethically, with good respect for our people.'' In order to download Fuller's most recent ''Proxy Statement'', ''Annual Report'', and/or to hear an audio recording of excerpts from Fuller's ''Annual Meeting of Shareholders'', use the following link: https://central.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/vsm/web.do?pvskey=FUL Black Mark for a 'Good Citizen' By DIANA B. HENRIQUES Published: November 26, 1995 WHEN it comes to business ethics, few American corporations have a better image than the H.B. Fuller Company of St. Paul, a leading manufacturer of industrial glues, coatings and paints. Awards, honors and inclusion in various socially conscious mutual funds attest to its standing as a good corporate citizen. But that reputation is being clouded by the company's handling of a stubborn image-staining problem: the illegal abuse of its shoemaker's glue by homeless Central American children, who have become addicted to the product's intoxicating but dangerous fumes. Some child welfare advocates, led by Covenant House in New York City, have demanded for years that the company add a noxious oil to its glue to discourage abusers. The company has resisted that approach – possibly because it might reduce the glue's effectiveness, possibly because the smell would be irritating to legitimate users. Fuller will say only that it is doing all it reasonably can to prevent abuse. Now this simmering dispute may boil over into something more serious for the company's image, and for its shareholders. Lawyers will decide by the end of the year whether to press ahead with a wrongful-death suit against Fuller on behalf of the family of a Guatemalan teen-ager who died in 1993. The legal team is also weighing the expansion of that suit into a class action, said one of the lawyers, Scott Hendler of Austin, Tex. By some estimates, tens of thousands of Central American children sniff some sort of glue. Officers of Covenant House's Latin American subsidiary are "anxious that we go forward with this case," Mr. Hendler said, "because they are absolutely convinced that Fuller's glue was responsible for the boy's death and that Fuller has been negligent in dealing with this problem." William Belknap, a Fuller spokesman, would not respond to specific questions but provided a one-page statement. "We are a law-abiding company with a long history of concern for product safety," it said. "We make and sell only legitimate products for legitimate purposes." The statement also listed briefly the steps the company has taken in recent years "to reduce the likelihood" of its glue being abused, including substituting a slightly less toxic formulation and curbs on retail sales in Honduras and Guatemala. The Fuller experience provides a textbook example of the thorny moral equations that lie beyond the simple arithmetic of the bottom line. But few agree on what lessons it offers: Does it teach that those who pursue the "good citizen" label too aggressively leave themselves vulnerable to attack? Or does it simply underscore how important it is for a corporate citizen to live up to its self-created image? And Fuller does repeatedly present itself as a good citizen. Year after year it sprinkles its annual reports with statements proclaiming that it has a commendable corporate conscience. In 1992, for instance, its "mission statement" said the company "will conduct business legally and ethically, support the activities of its employees in their communities and be a responsible corporate citizen." In material sent to shareholders, it chose as one benchmark for its overall performance an index of socially responsible companies, thus underscoring that that is a peer group it considers important. And it has endowed a chair in business ethics at the University of Minnesota. Fuller, of course, is not the only company to be accused of not living up to its own good-citizen image. In September 1994, the Body Shop International P.L.C., the cosmetics retailer whose advertisements stress a commitment to natural products, high environmental standards and philanthropy, was accused of exaggerating its adherence to those principles. And the founders of Ben and Jerry's Homemade Inc. have been tweaked frequently for preaching corporate democracy while practicing a more autocratic management style. Nor is glue-sniffing a new issue for the makers of solvent-based adhesives. The Testor Corporation added a noxious ingredient to discourage abuse of its hobby glue in July 1969. And Henkel, a German chemical company that competes with Fuller, stopped making certain toxic glues in Central America last year. But Fuller, which dominates the Central American market with its Resistol brand of glue, seems to have been singled out for more than its share of recent criticism, one industry consultant said. For four years, protesters have demonstrated outside Fuller's annual meetings, often in Minnesota's cold and rain. And some have bought Fuller shares and tried to get their complaints on the record at those meetings. "If they had a lesser reputation they would be less of a target," said William Broxterman, president of Chemquest Group, a consulting firm in Cincinnati. Timothy Smith, executive director of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, which coordinates the work of 275 religious investors with about $50 billion in assets, agreed that a high profile in the corporate citizenship arena can invite attack. "But as I see it, the hazard is not in acting in a socially responsible way," he said. "The hazard is in over-marketing yourself as a saint." Whatever the lesson one draws, however, the Fuller case should be required reading for corporate directors, said Lawrence Bear, a New York University professor and co-author of the textbook "Free Markets, Finance, Ethics, and Law." As Professor Bear sees it, "the question of how directors ought to act in circumstances like this is a terribly serious one, because when it gets out of hand, it gets into court." Even if Fuller loses the wrongful-death suit, it would be unlikely to affect, in any meaningful way, the bottom line of a company with more than $30 million in profits on $1 billion in revenues. But if it is expanded to a class action, the impact is more difficult to predict, since that step would make the case more difficult for the plaintiffs and more potentially damaging for the company. The litigation will also be an important test for Fuller's reputation not only at home but in Latin America. In 1994, fully 27 percent of its operating profits of $66 million came from Latin American operations. HOW did the Fuller dispute become so bitter? Most participants agree that the answer lies in the events of the summer of 1992, when Fuller's board adopted a resolution that seemed to be a victory for the company's critics. For years, the directors had been under pressure by a loose alliance of child advocacy groups concerned about the hazards of glue-sniffing among the homeless children of Central America. Those young gluesniffers are widely called "resistoleros" – for Fuller's Resistol – regardless of which brand they actually abuse. As that summer began, a national television news magazine was preparing to feature Fuller's product as part of the glue-sniffing problem. Then, on July 16, 1992, the board abruptly but unanimously voted to stop selling Resistol adhesives in Central America. As the company explained in its 1992 annual report: "Faced with the realizations that a suitable replacement product would not be available in the near future and that the illegitimate distribution was continuing, the Board of Directors decided that our Central American operations should stop selling those solvent-based Resistol adhesives that were commonly being abused by children." Local newspapers quoted Mr. Belknap as saying that until an alternative was found, "we simply don't believe it is the right decision to keep our solvent product on the market." Mary Swenson, a member of the informal Coalition on Resistoleros in St. Paul, said her group was "ecstatic." "We had a party," she recalled. "We had champagne." But jubilation soon turned to anger. By October 1992, the advocates had learned that Fuller had not stopped selling Resistol in Central America – and did not intend to. It no longer sold the glue to retailers and small-scale users in Honduras and Guatemala, but it did sell large tubs and barrels of it to industrial customers in those countries, and to a broader list of commercial and industrial users in neighboring countries. According to the company's statement, it has since taken other steps to address the abuse. It has changed the product's formula, dropping the sweet-smelling but highly toxic solvent toluene and substituting the slightly less toxic chemical cyclohexane. It has tried to develop a water-based glue, which is not intoxicating. It has studied the issue "thoroughly and carefully" and has contributed to community programs for homeless children in Central America. But those who expected Resistol sales in Central America to stop in 1992 describe those steps as mere image-polishing. Bruce Harris, the director of Latin American programs for Covenant House, asserts that Resistol is still readily available to children in Nicaragua and El Salvador and, to a lesser degree, in Costa Rica. "If they are genuinely concerned about the children," he asked, "why haven't they pulled out of all the countries – as their board mandated?" Mr. Harris is not alone in wondering about the gap between the board resolution of 1992 and the company's subsequent action. Indeed, among experts in business ethics, that remains the biggest mystery. "They shot themselves in the foot," said Mr. Smith of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, who nevertheless gives Fuller high marks for corporate conduct. The company has been praised for a high level of corporate philanthropy, including giving 5 percent of its profits to charity in each country where it operates. Moreover, the company has committed itself to safe environmental practices worldwide – practices "often more stringent than local government standards," Fuller said in an S.E.C. filing last year. ALICE TEPPER MARLIN, executive director of the Council on Economic Priorities, a leading advocate for socially responsible corporate conduct, agreed that the 1992 episode damaged Fuller's credibility. "If a company seems to go back on its commitments, they have sowed such distrust that it makes it very difficult to proceed," she said. "And that is the board's responsibility." Mr. Belknap, the Fuller spokesman, said none of the company's directors would comment about their handling of the issue, which he said has not been the subject of any other board resolution since the July 1992 action. "I'd have to say that the position statement I provided you with is consistent with the thinking of our board," he said. "I can't really go beyond that." Whatever happens with the threatened litigation, the dispute has certainly tarnished the company's once-pristine reputation as a good citizen. The attacks are coming on several fronts, including accusations that its paints made and sold abroad exceed United States limits on lead and a quarrel over the company's role as a big supplier of glue to the tobacco industry. (Emphasis added) According to Mr. Harris and Ms. Swenson, paints purchased from hardware stores throughout Central America were tested in a St. Paul laboratory. The test results, which were provided to The New York Times, show high levels of lead in many of the samples, including some but not all that are identified by the group as being Fuller products. Even though selling such paint is legal in Central America, critics point out that high lead levels are a known hazard, especially to children. Asked about the group's accusation, Mr. Belknap said, "We have publicly stated at our annual meeting that all of our products are within the U.S. standards for lead in paint." He would not respond to questions about whether Fuller's Central American paints have always conformed with United States lead standards, and if not, when the formula was adjusted. Given this history of mutual mistrust and frustration, it is not surprising that the Fuller dispute ultimately wound up in lawyers' hands. On Jan. 3, 1995, Mr. Hendler and a co-counsel, Michael Brickman of Charleston, S.C., filed their wrongful-death claim against Fuller in state court in Dallas. The case was filed in Texas to stop the clock until Mr. Hendler could determine that the statute of limitations for such cases was three years in Minnesota, his preferred venue because he wants to take the case right to Fuller's home town. He then obtained court permission to withdraw the case in Texas, but must refile it in Minnesota before the first week in January. A class action against Fuller is "something that is under consideration," Mr. Hendler said, adding, "We are still evaluating certain factors, such as how much of their product was out there, how many children are affected, and the extent of the impairment caused in the children who use the glue chronically – that's the most significant factor." But, according to Mr. Smith of the Interfaith Center, Fuller's board may soon face another test in the treacherous world of corporate citizenship, regardless of what Mr. Hendler decides about his lawsuit. "Fuller is a major seller of adhesives to the tobacco industry," Mr. Smith noted. "They are selling glues that go into a lethal product. That is another corporate-responsibility issue that Fuller's shareholders will be raising this coming year." (Emphasis added) STARTRIBUNE (Minneapolis, MN) 4 December 1995 THOUGH H. B. FULLER MAY WISH IT, RESISTOL ISSUE WON'T GO AWAY By Marjorie Kelly In Mexico City, 17-year-old Pedro was one of the lucky ones who got hospital treatment for his glue sniffing addiction. Not that it did him much good. Pedro today can barely walk, and he trembles constantly. In San Salvador, Lara became pregnant at 16 but refused to stop sniffing glue. Her infant has trouble breathing and experiences night seizures. In Guatemala, 14-year-old Joel Linares abused glue so long that it destroyed a kidney and apparently led to his death. The alleged cause: chronic exposure to toluene, a toxic substance found in some glues. These stories – from "Multinational Monitor," a newsletter published by a corporate watchdog organization – are only a sampling of those that are out there. They're about children known on the street as "Resistoleros," users of Resistol, the shoe maker's glue manufactured by St. Paul based H. B. Fuller. Resistol is not the only glue these kids sniff, but it's one of them. Suit May Be Pending Can these kids be considered "consumers" of H. B. Fuller's products, if the company doesn't sell to them directly? Are they "stakeholders" to whom the company has a moral obligation? More pointedly: Did H. B. Fuller contribute to the death of Joel Linares – and perhaps more like him? These will be more than academic questions, if two attorneys have their way. Scott Hendler of Austin, Texas, and Michael Brickman of Charleston, S.C., earlier this year filed a wrongful death suit against H. B. Fuller on behalf of Linares' mother. They withdrew the case in Texas in order to refile in Minnesota, and will decide by the end of the year whether to pursue it. More ominously, they may also ask that it be expanded to a class action. If they were to succeed, the potential liability could be staggering, considering that glue-sniffing kids in Latin America number in the tens of thousands, perhaps tens of millions. Media in the Wings If the case comes to trial, media coverage promises to be deadly. Just recently – on Sunday, Nov. 26 – the New York Times resurrected the Resistol issue in a story on the cover of its business section. The next day, H. B. Fuller stock fell $1.12 to $32.75, where it closed Friday. As much as H. B. Fuller might wish it, this issue is not one that's going away. A key point the lawyers say they would raise in court is H. B. Fuller's "sincerity" – particularly, whether it followed through on the promise it made in July 1992 to discontinue Resistol sales "wherever it is being misused." The company declined to comment last week. But according to the Times, by October 1992 a coalition opposing the sale of the glue in Central America learned that Fuller had not stopped selling Resistol there. It no longer sold to retailers and small-scale users in Honduras and Guatemala, but it did sell large tubs and barrels to industrial customers in those countries, and to a broader list of commercial and industrial users in neighboring countries. A Change in Formula To its credit, H. B. Fuller did change the formula of its industrial glue in Central America recently, replacing toluene with cyclohexane – a substance less prone to abuse. The changeover will be completed at the end of 1995. Rick Kingston, senior clinical toxicologist with the Minnesota Regional Poison Center, confirms that the new substance is less attractive to inhale. In the end, technical details like these may be irrelevant. An estimated 40 million to 50 million street children live in Latin America, and many of them are sick and dying from inhalant abuse. And rightly or wrongly, they seem inextricably connected to H. B. Fuller. Like a rich man finding an orphan abandoned at his doorstep, the company has no choice but to deal with them. Did H. B. Fuller "cause" their suffering? I'd say no. Does it have a moral obligation to help them? I'd say yes. BUSINESS ETHICS July/August 1995 PRODUCT LIABILITY: IS RESISTOL TOO STICKY FOR H. B. FULLER TO HANDLE? Litigators want to paste company with 'wrongful death' suit over child's misuse of product By Dale Kurschner, Editor H. B. Fuller Co.'s Resistol dilemma is living up to its name: It's resisting all efforts to be resolved. And matters may soon worsen on the issue of Central American street children using the glue to get high. A wrongful death lawsuit has been drafted and could be filed against the firm in July, says Scott Hendler, an attorney in Austin, Texas. Hendler represents Julia Polanco of Guatemala, who claims her son died as a result of sniffing Resistol. Her suit would seek a jury trial and would be similar to one she filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas earlier this year, according to Hendler. Polanco asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit so it could be moved to Fuller's home jurisdiction, Minnesota. If the suit is filed, Polanco would have a tough case to prove – that misuse of Fuller's product led to a death, and that Fuller's glue was to blame, though other companies' glues were likely being sniffed, as well. As Fuller quickly points out, the problem is not with the glue but with the social condition that lead children to misuse it. But this suit, by itself, is not what threatens Fuller. It's the fact that attorneys such as Hendler and Charleston, South Carolina attorney Michael Brickman have teamed up on such litigation. Social work groups like Covenant House of New York – critics of Resistol's availability as a narcotic to thousands of street children in Central America – are upping the ante in their campaign to stop its sales by referring alleged victims of its misuse to U.S. attorneys. And even more troubling is the potential for a jury trial – and the negative publicity it could create – on an issue that Fuller has successfully addressed as far as its customers and shareholders are concerned. "When these situations occur outside the United States, it takes a healthy amount of media coverage to get anybody's attention," says Nick Nichols, a crisis management expert and partner in the Washington, D.C. communications firm Nichols Dezenhall. "Once the debate occurs within our borders – and this all assumes media coverage – a jury trial could prove to be a very significant crisis catalyst for the company." H. B. Fuller's response to Polanco's possible suit is, "What lawsuit?" according to spokesman Bill Belknap. The company won't comment, even on the Texas filing, unless there is a new filing. And it maintains that it has tried everything possible – warning labels, tighter distribution controls, a change in formula in some countries, and other measures – to keep children from using Resistol as an inhalant. In at least two countries, it has stopped selling Resistol through retailers. "A Decision to pull the product at retail is clearly a move in the right direction," Nichols says. "To hold the company accountable for how its industrial customers behave is beyond rational judgment." Various media and groups like Covenant House are trying to do just that, however. They claim Fuller is giving lip service to a problem it could solve by adding a foul odor to its glue, or by discontinuing its sales "wherever it is being misused" as the company said would do in 1992. Indeed, it is statements like that made by Fuller President and CEO Walter Kissling on July 17, 1992, that may hurt the company the most (see sidebar following). "It's a key point to the case," Hendler says. "Representing they would take progressive steps, then not following through with them – that's what tipped the scale on whether Fuller was sincere in dealing with this problem." Nichols agrees. "What makes this case worse is the appearance, true or not, that the company's solutions to the problem were not fully exercised," he says. "That could leave the jury, but more importantly the other key audiences, with the perception that the company didn't do what it said it would, and that it doesn't care." John Schultz, a money manager with Ethical Investments Inc. in Minneapolis, says Fuller has done everything it can to remedy the situation. And he questions the validity of Polanco's claims. "If they were to win this suit – and they will not – it would put any volatile-based business out of business. Makers of paints, aerosols, even gasoline," he says. In the Texas suit, Polanco among other things alleged Fuller had the opportunity to add ingredients that would make the glue less attractive as an inhalant, but refused; was negligent because it knowingly designed the glue in a way that attracts children; and failed to test the product's attractiveness to, and, harmful effects on, children, despite knowing that children were misusing it. More than any other manufacturer of adhesives, paint and other chemical products, Fuller has earned a U.S. reputation over the years for being socially responsible. It is a member of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES); it has given 5 percent of its U.S. pre-tax earnings to charity since 1976; by 1997, it plans to give 5 percent of its annual worldwide pre-tax earnings to charity. Given such corporate kindness, it makes little sense that Fuller would be as "wrongful" about Resistol as Polanco and other critics allege. Indeed, Belknap says if anyone's ethics are questionable, it is those of Fuller's critics. For example, Covenant House, in recent months has accused Fuller of selling a wood treatment product containing the toxic insecticide pentachlorophenol in Central America; it says its representatives can still walk into stores and buy Fuller's brand with that insecticide; it doesn't tell people, however, that Fuller discontinued sales of such products five years ago, and that what it is finding could very well be remnant inventory. When asked about that point, a Covenant House representative says Fuller should have recalled the product. "We're doing everything we can and what we think is right," Belknap says about Resistol. "But what is the role of the activists in all this? How can they bring about positive change?" The solution is not for Fuller and other companies to stop selling toxic glues, but rather to help get children off the streets and into productive lives, he says. Fuller has said previously that its goal is to help get children off the streets in Central America. It donates thousands of dollars each year to children's groups aiding in that effort. But Belknap refuses to say how much, because, when revealed in the past, critics complained it's not enough for an international company with $1 billion in sales and $30 million in net income. As for Resistol hurting people, "we're no different from people who make Glade air freshener or gasoline," he says. "We make a legitimate product that is sold for legitimate purposes. We distribute it as controlled as we can, and we do everything we're expected to do." SIDEBAR: How H. B. Fuller's statements have changed since it said it would discontinue sales of solventbased glues wherever they're being misused. July 1992 Board of Directors and management state the company will discontinue the sale of Resistol glue in Central America "wherever it is being misused." President and Chief Operating Officer (today CEO) Walter Kissling says, "Until we can come up with a substitution for the solvent-based glues that are sniffed by kids, we will just pull out of the market." The media responds favorably. In an editorial titled "Kids Before Profits, H. B. Fuller's Way," the Minneapolis StarTribune says, "The company made the right choice on a complex issue. Fuller's board of directors decided to stop selling glue to hundreds of small shoemakers. How many companies might instead have stopped with 'it's not our problem that the kids get the glue. We sell to legitimate users.' " October 1992 Dick Johnson, Fuller's vice president of corporate affairs tells Minneapolis/St. Paul CityBusiness the company has discontinued sales of Resistol to its industrial and retail users only in Guatemala and Honduras, where its misuse is most prevalent. Instead, an adhesive similar to Resistol is being sold to industrial customers, he says. September 1993 Spokesman Bill Belknap tells the StarTribune the company is still selling Resistol to its industrial customers in Guatemala and Honduras, but has tightened its distribution system, and is no longer selling the glue through retail outlets. Activists say there are many channels through which glue at factories winds up in the hands of children. July 1995 Belknap says the company's efforts (stopping retail sales in two countries) have proven ineffective – proof, he says, that the problem is not with the glue but the social conditions that lead children to want to inhale it. "We're no different from people who manufacture Glade or who make gasoline. We make a legitimate product that is sold for legitimate purposes." STAR TRIBUNE (Minneapolis) 21 April 1996 LATIN AMERICA GLUE ABUSE HAUNTS H.B. FULLER By Paul McEnroe, staff writer --------------------------------The H.B. Fuller Co. is accused of making the glue that a Guatemalan teenager used before he died in 1993. Fuller says that it has since changed the glue's formula and that inhalant abuse is – "a social problem, not a product problem." ---------------------------------Antigua, Guatemala – At the back of a graveyard overtaken by weeds and plastic wreaths, there is a white crypt that contains the remains of 10 street children. No other gravesite is kept as clean by the caretaker. It's said that the absence of litter around the crypt is the caretaker's way of conveying that, at least in death, the value of these children is elevated above the garbage-filled streets on which they lived and died in Guatemala City. A child by the name of Joel de Jesus Linares rests in the top row. The inscription under his name reads: "You fought for your life and you live." In a sense, the inscription is more true today that when he died. Three years after his death, Linares still lives in the corporate boardroom of the esteemed H.B. Fuller Co. in St. Paul, Minn., as well as in the minds of human rights attorneys, business ethicists and youth workers throughout Latin America. He is the center of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his family in January against Fuller, which is accused of manufacturing a toxic shoemaker's glue product, Resistol, that allegedly contributed to his death in January 1993. At a hearing scheduled for Thursday in Duluth before U.S. Magistrate Raymond Erickson, Fuller is expected to ask that the case be dismissed because it should be heard in a Guatemalan courtroom. The stakes in the Fuller case are immense. The company finds itself a defendant in a federal case that the family's attorneys say could expand into a class-action suit encompassing upwards of 15,000 children who abuse inhalants in Guatemala. At risk are millions of dollars and the reputations of the company's top leaders. Fuller vigorously defends its glue, saying it is no longer being abused by street children because the company has reformulated the product and increased the price. Company executives believe that because they have replaced a sweet-smelling, addictive toxic chemical, toluene, with another toxic but less-odorous chemical, children have turned to other brands. But Fuller senior [vice] president Dick Johnson acknowledged that he has no hard evidence to prove the product isn't being abused. "I couldn't write it down. I couldn't document it, but it would make sense because it's 30 percent higher and...the product is less attractive to kids," Johnson said. Beyond that question comes the issue of whether U.S. corporations will be held responsible for business practices that affect the welfare of children in the Third World. Also, just how far must a company go to prove it has tried to keep a toxic product from the hands of those children? Linares has become a symbol for the welfare of millions of street children from Mexico City to Rio, many of whom walk around as he once did, zombies taking deep draws off their drugs of choice – baby-food jars of glue, or rags soaked with paint solvents – the inhalants that smother their desire for food and ward off the cold. Mark Connolly, a UNICEF program manager who knew Linares, said the organization only expects the inhalant crisis to worsen in Latin America. "The governments can't stop it," he said. "The issue is availability. The menu out there for substance abuse is so huge. If no glue is available, it still wouldn't have any impact on substance abuse." The advocates' case In early 1992, Linares' frowning portrait appeared on leaflets dotting bulletin boards in stores across the Twin Cities. Children's rights advocates, known as Coalition [on] Resistoleros, said that unless he received money for a transplant, Linares would soon die, allegedly because his organs were destroyed from sniffing paint thinner and toluene-based glue. Much of that glue, said these advocates, came from the Central American production plants of the Fuller Company, a multinational Fortune 500 company that rose in stature under the leadership of Elmer L. Andersen, ex-governor of Minnesota. With his guidance – and then that of his son, Tony – the company has prided itself as one of the leading socially responsible businesses in the United States, funding a chair on the study of business ethics at the University of Minnesota, as well as establishing a charitable foundation dedicated to the environment, the arts and social programs. Founded in 1887, Fuller is a world-wide manufacturer of adhesives, sealants and paint coatings. The company says its sales of solvent adhesives in Latin America represent a fraction of 1 percent of its total revenues. Fuller will not divulge what its market share in glue sales is in Central America but says that in recent years it has profits of about $450,000 a year from glue sales in the region. Executives said the cost of dealing with the public relations issue that shadows the company has outweighed that profit. Fuller says it stays in the Latin American market because "We believe those little [shoe] businesses need to survive," said Johnson. "They provide employment, help relieve the issue of poverty, and we're willing to do whatever we can." The Linares case isn't the only issue that the company is facing these days. At Fuller's annual meeting last week, a Catholic health-care organization, that owns stock, urged that the company stop supplying glue to tobacco companies in the United States and abroad because peripheral companies such as Fuller may be the next target in cigarette-related lawsuits. (Emphasis added) The Minnesota-based Coalition [on] Resistoleros chose Fuller as a target of protest because they argued that Resistol had been widely abused for years in Latin America. Gangs of hungry children hanging out on street corners had assumed a generic identity – the Resistoleros – whether they inhaled that brand or not. Much of the coalition's effort in the early 1990s centered on pressuring the company to add a harshsmelling oil-of-mustard ingredient to Resistol. They believed such an additive would discourage Resistol's use but the company said such a move would be useless. At 16, Linares died in a halfway house for street children in Guatemala City, reportedly just before his mother was going to donate one of her kidneys to him. Joel Linares was mostly forgotten. That is until January, when Fuller found itself accused of contributing to his death. In the complaint filed against the company, Fuller is accused of knowingly making an "extremely addictive product" that caused "severe physical and neurological damage" to thousands of Central American children, not doing enough to prevent the glue from getting to the children, failing to warn of the dangers of inhaling the product and refusing to add deterrents that would keep children from inhaling it. In its defense, Fuller contends that it "neither manufactured nor sold Resistol," according to court briefs filed by the company's attorney, former U.S. Magistrate Jan Symchych. Rather, it was Fuller's subsidiary, Fuller-Guatemala, that actually made and sold Resistol, according to the briefs. The allegations "are nothing more than an attempt to hold Fuller liable for acts and omissions of its secondtier Guatemalan subsidiary," the briefs said. "The guts of Fuller's defense in the Linares case is that black-market dealers are responsible for the tragic abuse of children in Central America," said Symchych in an interview. "But before we get to that issue, there will have to be a decision whether an American court...is willing to impose American legal principles on foreign disputes. It's like the Union Carbide poison gas case in Bhopal, India. A court in the U.S. concluded it would be an act of American arrogance to keep the case in the U.S. and it was fought in India." Scott Hendler, an Austin, Texas attorney who is leading the case against Fuller on behalf of the Linares family, argues that crucial corporate decisions made at Fuller's headquarters in Minnesota dictated Fuller's Latin American glue operations. Hendler has studied international human rights law and policy at the Inter-American Court of Rights in Costa Rica and is a member of the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. He said attorneys from three firms across the country, including Heins, Mills & Olson of Minneapolis, "are amassing a war chest of $1 million" to fight the Fuller case. "Fuller consciously chose to market its glue products in countries where it knew its products were subject to widespread use by children and virtually no regulation," said Hendler's brief. "As a result of Fuller's corporate policy decisions made in Minnesota – not in the office of a Guatemalan subsidiary – an entire generation of children was knowingly endangered because of this dangerous, toxic product," said Hendler in an interview. "The body count goes up and Fuller chalks it up as the price of doing business. To say their product is no longer being abused, to me is an implicit admission that these children were previously loyal to Resistol, which is what we contend." Fuller: No more abuse One of Fuller's advertising slogans is" "We work chemistry into answers." And Fuller says it may have found the one that solves the inhalant-abuse problem. This past winter, Fuller began testing a water-based non-toxic glue among Central American manufacturers who are making 5,000 pairs of shoes with the experimental formula. The company says it is optimistic that the formula will hold up and that the region's shoe market will be influenced to use the new product. They deny they are pushing for a new solution because of pressure from the children's advocates, but because toxic glue solvents are an environmental issue. Even before this, the company said it took significant steps that addressed the issue of children's welfare and abuse of toxic substances. Fuller's Dick Johnson says that beginning in 1994, Fuller changed the chemical makeup of its glue because it wanted Resistol to be "less attractive" to children. It decided to replace toluene with a less-toxic and less-aromatic chemical, cyclohexane, so that by the end of that year there would not be any toluene-based Resistol on the shelves in Latin America. Along with the reformulation came a 30-percent price increase. And for those two reasons, the company believes children are not inhaling its product. "There are six or seven other manufacturers in Central America that make toluene-based products," says Johnson. "Our feeling today is that after doing some discussion with our people down there, that the kids are using other products that are toluene based and not using our products with cyclohexane." Richard Kingston, senior clinical toxicologist for the Minnesota Regional Poison Center at St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center and assistant professor of pharmacy at the University of Minnesota, support Fuller's view. "It [cyclohexane] is less volatile than toluene, and so less desirable" to abusers. "It's more difficult to get high concentrations of cyclohexane because it does not evaporate as quickly." Kingston has consulted with Fuller but it's not known if he will testify on behalf of the company, said Symchych. Others disagree with Kingston and Fuller. Dr. Herbert Schaumberg of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y., one of the most highly regarded experts in the United States on inhalant abuse, said that Fuller cannot scientifically prove that street children inhaling solvents no longer use the company's product. Schaumburg has consulted pro bono with plaintiff attorneys and will likely testify on the effects of inhalant abuse on the body. "The kids will sniff anything to get high," he said. "They would not be able to tell the difference by smell between cyclohexane and toluene because they lose their sense of smell. It is one of the first things to go – they have an impaired sense of small. It's obvious nobody can tell what's in the baby jars. But Fuller can't prove their product isn't being abused." Dr. Tim Rohrig, a toxicologist who consults nationally for medical examiners in cases of death by poison or drugs, said he's skeptical that glue-addicted children have turned completely away from Resistol. "I doubt the kids are that sophisticated that they can differentiate by odor," he said. "If it can get them high, then they will use it.... They may have to take more sniffs with cyclohexane than they would with toluene but they still can get the desired intoxication. As long as the kids can get that effect, why are they going to change?" Walking the streets and markets in the capitals of Latin America, it is very difficult for anyone besides a black-market street dealer to say what brand-name glue is being inhaled by children. That's because the glue they use is repackaged into unlabeled baby-food jars, which are then sold by shoe repairmen. Concepcion Aparicio, a social worker for the Salvadoran government, said she believes street children are still abusing Resistol. She scoffed when she saw a label on a can of Resistol sitting on the shelf of a downtown hardware store in San Salvador. The label said the glue contained cyclohexane, which was unattractive for inhaling. "All the kids on solvents say they use glue – Fuller's and other brands like El Toro," she said. Roger Zavala, a shoe repairman in Managua, Nicaragua for the past 20 years, said he buys Resistol by the gallon and barrel. He says street children in the Oriental Market where he works constantly steal jars of glue from him. The resolution In 1992, two years before it began to change its product, Fuller decided to remove the product from retail shelves in Guatemala and Honduras because it said it recognized the ethical issues "arising out of the abuse" of Resistol by street children. Besides pulling Resistol from retail shelves in those two countries, Fuller said it would tighten distribution on a wholesale level to prevent product abuse. But within a year, Fuller was accused by advocates of not following through, which attorney Hendler says remains a large part of the Linares case. In an interview, Fuller's Johnson said, "OK, so we didn't have all the answers... Consequently, we find out that withdrawing from the market has not made one bit of difference in inhalant abuse or solvent abuse by children. Withdrawal is not the solution. If this had worked well in Honduras and Guatemala we would have gone on. We stopped...it wasn't doing any good." Fuller still sells Resistol in Guatemala and Honduras. In those two countries, the company says, it sells only directly to industrial users, eliminating the distributor in order to have better control over keeping Resistol off the black market. "It's a social problem. It's not a product problem," Johnson said. Problem beyond Fuller Marilyn Rocky is the executive director of ChildHope, an international agency for street children that works with UNICEF, Save the Children-UK and World Vision. She has seen a lot of street corners and a lot of glue. If it's Romania, for example, the brand is Aurolac. If it's Russia, it's glue and gasoline. Nairobi, Kenya – glue. The same in Southeast Asia. Tick off the country, she ticks off the inhalant. "The point is that the situation these kids are in, from all over the world, is what makes them all so vulnerable to drugs. It's not just H.B. Fuller's glue and Central and Latin America," she said. According to ChildHope, there are about 40 million street children in Latin America. It estimates that nearly all of these children use or have used common street drugs, glue and thinner being the most widespread because they are among the cheapest. One of the kinds of children Rocky is talking about is Maritza Caceres, 16, who lives in a wooden stall across from Parque Libertad in downtown San Salvador. Three months pregnant, she eats a salted lime and chases it by sniffing glue. She walks around with a jar of glue for herself, removing it from under her shirt now and again to share a few globs with friends. Sober men and women pass her by, but there is no reaction on their faces. The country is hard, the city harder. War and chaos through the 1980s has left calluses on people who have no time for the likes of her. Caceres says, "My first baby died from the glue. He was 7 months old. Angel Alexander. The doctors said it was his liver, and that it was caused by the glue. I almost stopped glue after the first baby died. I was depressed. Three months ago I wasn't on it. I'm desperate. This baby's father is addicted." A few miles away, a soul is saved – at least for a week. Oscar Antonio Flores, a 14-year-old "flamethrower," is resting at a cottage at the Institute for the Protection of Children in San Salvador. He's been convinced to come off the street for a few days and get his bearings while Aparicio, the government social worker, tries to persuade his mother that her son shouldn't be pushed into doing what is making him critically ill. He's crying. He's caught in the middle and feeling stretched. He feels rotten even though he's got all the food he needs. What he wants is the glue he sniffs to ease the pain of the ulcers in this throat and stomach. They are the result of swallowing diesel fuel that he turns to flame against the city's nightscape. In El Salvador and Guatemala, flame-throwing by scores of street children is the latest off-shoot of glue addiction. The Salvadoran government has launched a public health campaign asking people to stop paying these children who entertain them while risking their lives. Oscar says he can earn about 50 colones ($5.75 in U.S. dollars) in a night of performing such theater. He brings the money home to his family. Home is under an oxcart. Oscar has been throwing flame since he was 10. He has paid dearly while trying to help feed a large family. Of eight brothers and sisters, he's the sixth. Oscar uses glue to soothe the pain in his throat and stomach. "The body asks you to do it. I need it. I always have pain. My kidneys always hurt." Whether Oscar will be able to stay clean is impossible to say. Aparicio said his mother had appeared at the gate of the compound to take him home. Aparicio was having none of it, not convinced the mother was sincere. "Three other brothers and sisters are sniffing glue," says Aparicio. "his sister, Blanca, cannot walk anymore because of the glue. An older brother has two children and he still uses." Facing the tragedy of stories such as these, Rocky says, is a much broader issue than just Resistol. "You could blow Fuller off the face of the Earth and the kids down there will somehow come up with 20 bucks and still come back with a smorgasbord of other kinds of drugs," said Rocky. "Fuller's problem is that they put themselves in their own bad place. The rock has hit their temple." Still, rather than single out Fuller, she says she believes attention should focus on the issues of what causes the children to turn to solvents in the first place – a longtime argument of Fuller's. "There should be outrage, there should be the political will to stop abuses of children who are exploited," she said. "We should also be talking about HIV infections of street children, assassination squads in Brazil who seek these children out and kill them." So where does corporate responsibility play a role in the debate? Bruce Harris, executive director of Casa Alianza, which is affiliated with Covenant House in New York City, is one of the loudest advocates for the street children of Latin America. Harris was recognized by Amnesty International as one of the organization's world heroes. "Our idea is that any product that is misused, we as adults have a responsibility to protect the children [from] the best we can," said Harris. "Toluene is sweeter smelling than cyclohexane. It smells great. And if you're a new kid on the block, you may consciously go for sweeter stuff. But if you've been on the block a while, you go for the high, and cyclohexane gives you the same high." A family falling apart For 20-year old Ruth Linares, this is only the second time she has been to her brother's crypt. The first time was when he was put to rest. It costs 50 cents by bus to make the trip from Guatemala City, and that's too expensive for her. To buy flowers is out of the question. Today, the day seems longer because of what she heard the night before. It was nearly 10 o'clock when her youngest and only remaining brother, Miguel, 18, finally walked into their two-room hut in the Carolangia barrio on the backside of Guatemala City. As the talk around the dinner table turned to hallucinations and glue and body parts feeling afire, she shook her head. "When you are living on the street, the glue takes away your anger and you feel very warm. You aren't hungry anymore," said Miguel, bragging how he'd been cold turkey off the glue and solvents for two days. "When I do it, I can see the cars exploding in flames in my mind and my kidneys feel on fire. Joel started when he was 8. We'd sing on the buses for food or money to buy glue. Because there was no food at home. In the end, Joel only did the glue. He didn't care about eating anything. When he did, he would put salt on everything because he couldn't taste anything. In the orphanage, that night, they waited for him to come to dinner and when he didn't come to the table, they found him in his bed. He was cold when they touched him." Ruth had heard this talk before and it only heightened her worry that one of the eight remaining slots in the crypt holding her brother will soon hold the other. "He's using a lot of glue and solvent," she said of Miguel. Now, with her baby son and younger sister looking on, she moved a step closer to the crypt and prayed for Joel and Miguel: "I ask that God receive Joel in heaven and pray that no more like Joel come to Him." At sunset, they left and the caretaker nodded his respects. In an ancient city designated by the United Nations as a Monument to the Americas, this crypt at the end of the path seems the street child's monument to sorrow. "These children will tell you they know they have nothing to live for and that they are heading down a one-way street to be buried in this kind of place," said Glynn Fry, an English youth worker for Casa Alianza who accompanied Linares on her anguished trip. "We are a world treating this cancer with an aspirin. These are children who have been born into the dying class. That is their fate and the world doesn't really care. "That is why they go to sleep with a grip on the glue. To try to forget." National Catholic Reporter 31 March 1995 FIRM RESISTS TIGHTER CONTROL ON TOXIC GLUE By Paul Jeffrey GUATEMALA CITY – They call it El Hoyo – The Hole. Tucked away in the back streets of Guatemala City, it's a section of town not featured on travel posters. Crammed side by side, the bars and brothels blare Mexican ranchero music while empty-eyed children lounge outside, their hands moving frequently to their mouths so they can inhale from a small jar or plastic bag. The containers hold a rubbery substance whose hallucinogenic fumes help the kids survive life in The Hole. The children who live in The Hole represent a growing population of Latin America's youth. According to UNICEF, 100 million children live on the streets of the world's cities, an inordinate half of them in Latin America and the Caribbean. Half the region's children are poor and a majority of the region's poor are children, a growing number of whom end up on the streets of cities form Monterrey to Montevideo. Rather than fighting to survive in families torn by poverty, alcoholism and abuse, they prefer to fend for themselves on the streets. Although it's a harsh environment, the kids learn to cope. Glue helps. The narcotic of choice for street kids throughout the region is shoemaker's glue, a psychologically addictive substance which, when inhaled, provides an instant escape from the environment of fear. The glue's potent fumes ward off the pangs of hunger and provide warmth in a world of rejection. A principal ingredient of the glue is toluene, a sweet-smelling, petroleum-derived neurotoxin. When inhaled, it goes straight to the frontal lobes and to the areas that control emotions; it turns off the brain's connection to reality, neutralizing stress, pain, fear and memory. It's the perfect drug for street kids. It's comforting. It takes the place of parental affection. It also makes you brave; while observing street kids snatch watches and handbags on the streets of Tegucigalpa, Hector Palacios, a street educator for Casa Alianza, the Latin American program of New-York-based Covenant House, told NCR, "Look at their eyes or smell their clothes. It's glue that gives them the bravery to do that." Yet toluene takes a toll. Occasional inhaling produces nosebleeds, rashes and headaches. Long-term usage typically results in irreversible neurological damage, kidney or liver failure, paralysis and death. After years of abusing glue on the streets of Guatemala City, Joel Linares died of kidney failure in 1993, allegedly the result of chronic toluene exposure. On Jan. 3, in U.S. District Court in Dallas, two toxic-injury attorneys – Scott Hendler of Austin, Texas, and Michael Brickman of Charleston, S.C. – filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of Julia Polanco, the mother of the 14-year-old Guatemalan boy. According to Hendler, the suit alleges that officials of the Minneapolis-based H. B. Fuller Co., which manufactures and markets glue in Guatemala, contributed to Linares' death by "designing, manufacturing and marketing a product that was an attractive nuisance to children. They knew that they continued to sell it without taking any steps to prevent it from falling into the hands of children." The suit, which may be delayed and moved to Minnesota, has important backers. The head of Covenant House, St. Mary Rose McGeady, told NCR she was asking what she called "the most prestigious law firm in the United States" – Cravath, Swaine and Moore, a New York legal firm that represents Covenant House – to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the plaintiff. "We wouldn't do this if there was any other route," McGeady said, "but the company is simply stonewalling." Referring to an H. B. Fuller-funded faculty position at the University of Minnesota, McGeady said, "It's incredible to me that a company that funds an ethics chair at a university could be so unethical in everyday practice." Asked if such criticism of a large corporation could hurt fundraising efforts for her $70 million-a-year Catholic charity, McGeady said, "You can't let anything get in the way of doing what's right. And we are right on this one. I don't care if I never get another penny from Minnesota. If we do what's right for kids, then the Lord is on our side." DETERRING ABUSE As inhalant abuse increased visibly throughout Central America in the 1980s, particularly among younger children, organizations started treatment programs for chronic sniffers. Yet the success rate is low. Casa Alianza, one of few such programs in the region, claims a 35 percent success rate. Given the failure of education and treatment programs to make a dent in a growing problem, activists decided to take on the companies that produce and market glue. Corporate officials said it wasn't their fault if someone abused a product intended for legitimate use. Yet one U.S. corporation decided 27 years ago that it could do something. The Testor Corp. of Rockford, Ill., became concerned in the 1960s about complaints that its toluenebased model airplane glue was being sniffed by U.S. children. In 1968, after testing 94 possible additives, it decided to add oil of mustard, a foul-smelling additive that's included on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Generally Regarded as Safe" list. Testor reported that sales dropped dramatically, as did complaints from police and physicians that the product was being sniffed. Citing Testor's example, activists in Central America demanded in the 1980s that oil of mustard be added to toluene-based glues as a deterrent. The social workers and street educators had no illusions that the chemical's addition would eradicate substance abuse, since hard-core users could always turn to other substances, yet they hoped it would at least keep many first-time users from getting started, while discouraging abuse among older users by removing the most easily obtained product. Glue makers were reluctant to change their profitable ways, however, so in 1987 Honduran activists lobbied their nation's Congress to require all toluene-based glue sold there to include oil of mustard. Enter the H. B. Fuller Co., which in Central America makes Resistol, the preferred narcotic for thousands of street children. In many areas the kids are dubbed resistoleros. The slogan on Resistol advertisements – "You stick it and it never comes unstuck" – could apply to abusers as well as legitimate uses. When the Honduran Congress debated the oil of mustard bill in 1988, H. B. Fuller weighed in with abundant corporate charm and a plethora of seemingly well-documented studies. Overwhelmed by H. B. Fuller's lobbying, in 1989 the Congress passed a watered-down law creating a commission that would set the amount of oil of mustard necessary. After more pressure and "scientific studies" from H. B. Fuller, the commission recommended zero percent. The U.S. company pulled all the strings it could to manufacture public opposition to the law. It barraged local shoemakers, for example, with claims that oil of mustard would endanger their health. David Calvert, director of Casa Alianza in Honduras, told NCR that H. B. Fuller conducted a ''campaign of lies." UNKEPT PROMISES Observing developments to the south, children's activists in the United States launched a campaign to pressure H. B. Fuller at home. In 1992, the Coalition on Resistoleros, run out of a cramped campus ministries office in Minneapolis, started telling the public the story of H. B. Fuller in Central America. They couldn't mount a consumer boycott because H. B. Fuller doesn't manufacture consumer products in the United States, so activists called on the public to use moral pressure. While acknowledging that other companies – especially the German firm Henkel – also manufacture and market shoemaker's glue, they claimed H. B. Fuller deserved special attention because it subverted homegrown efforts in Honduras to resolve the problem. The criticism of H. B. Fuller drew media attention. On July 17, 1992, just days before the filming of an NBC "Dateline" investigation into the company's role in inhalant abuse in Central America, H. B. Fuller's board of directors unanimously declared it would "discontinue its production of solvent adhesives where they are known to be abused." The decision was proclaimed widely as an example of responsible corporate ethics. Yet a year later activists in Central America charged that H. B. Fuller had not kept its promise and had done little to remove toluene from the hands of children. In Guatemala and Honduras, where the company stopped most retail sales of small cans of Resistol, it still distributes it wholesale in 55-gallon drums. Unscrupulous shoemakers, along with merchants in leather shops and hardware stores, resell it to children in small amounts. And retail-size cans of Resistol from neighboring countries can be found on store shelves. In Nicaragua, H. B. Fuller put small warning labels on retail cans, advising that the product shouldn't be sold to minors. Yet many store clerks either can't read the labels or ignore them. Even Dick Johnson, H. B. Fuller's vice president, admitted the labels have little effect. "I don't think they have a lot to do with stopping the use," Johnson told NCR, "any more than the warning they put on cigarettes up here in the United States." According to Dr. Craig Lofton, a UNICEF official in Managua, Nicaragua, inhalant abuse has burgeoned during the past three years in Nicaragua. He says Resistol is what kids use most. Officials at H. B. Fuller seem never to have taken seriously their directors' heralded pledge. H. B. Fuller's Bill Belknap told The Miami Herald in 1993 that the declaration of withdrawal included "an unfortunate choice of working on our part." The company returned to the argument – so effective in Honduras – that oil of mustard is dangerous, even carcinogenic. Yet chemists say its dangers pale beside those of toluene, which is near the top of the Environmental Protection Agency's list of hazardous toxins and made the EPA's Superfund list. Charles Miller, the retired president of Testor Corp., said of H. B. Fuller's argument, "That's so dumb, I can't believe people make that argument straight-faced," during the NBC "Dateline" program. Many of those who work with abusers in Central America are similarly unimpressed with H. B. Fuller's rhetoric. "If they're so concerned about children, I think they would look at all the possible alternatives. Instead, they've been very stubborn," said Bruce Harris, director of Latin American operations for Covenant House. Harris told NCR that adding oil of mustard to glue would cost only 7 cents a gallon. But, he said, "of the 40 to 50 million street children in Latin America, more than half sniff glue. Hardcore users go through about a gallon a week. That's up to 20 million gallons a week; do they really want to lose that market?" According to company figures, Latin America represented 15 percent of H. B. Fuller's sales in 1994 but yielded a whopping 27 percent of its earning. Harris draws a comparison to H. B. Fuller's production of lead-based paint in the region: "For more than 15 years, paint manufacturers in the U.S. have worked under strong federal laws regarding the use of lead and mercury in paint. This is a U.S. company. But they export old technology, on which you get a lot of return. It's a cash cow for them." Johnson bristles at such accusations. "You've got to remember that we don't sell to street children," he said. "We sell to legitimate users who are manufacturing a product, who are employing people who are supporting families. ...If people, children or adults, get it illegitimately, that's a concern to us, but you've got to remember that's not our main focus. Our focus is to provide products to industry, to users who in turn make a product. We do our very best to minimize exposure, to minimize danger, to minimize problems... We do the best we can, but we formulate for our customers, and our customers are certainly no illegitimate distributors of street children." A FORMULA CHANGE H. B. Fuller has felt the pressure. Although it still sells toluene-based glue in other parts of Latin America, last year in Central America it began substituting cyclohexane for toluene. According to Johnson, the changeover should be complete by the end of 1995. H. B. Fuller introduced the new formula in Costa Rica with newspaper ads in March 1994 claiming the substitution resolved the problem of abuse, stating cyclohexane was "not attractive to inhale." Street kids agree that it's not as pleasant to sniff as sweet-smelling toluene. "And it doesn't get you high as fast," said Harris, "you get over the smell because you're more concerned about the high than the smell." The suggestion that cyclohexane is less dangerous is misleading. A hydrocarbon solvent like toluene, cyclohexane also makes the EPA's Superfund list of hazardous toxins. "The difference between toluene and cyclohexane is like the difference between a .44 magnum and a .357 magnum," Tim Rohrig, an inhalant abuse specialist, declared in an interview last year with Multinational Monitor. Rohrig formerly worked as a medical examiner in Oklahoma and currently works as a toxicologist for a private laboratory. Harris questions the relevance of what little data exists on cyclohexane. "(Occupational Safety and Health Administration) studies show you can have six times more exposure to cyclohexane than to toluene in a controlled working area. That's fine. But has anyone done a study about what happens to kids who have their face in a bag of the stuff all day." Henkel, the giant German firm that competes for marketshare with H. B. Fuller in Central America, has also been under pressure from German children's advocates. As a result, in early 1994 Henkel sold its toluene stockpile to local producers and completely switched its product line to cyclohexane. But it didn't work. "The product became so expensive that the industry quit buying from us in April, and we dropped the product line in September," Michael Waechter, the general manager of Henkel's Central American operations, told NCR. He said cyclohexane-based glue was at least 25 percent more expensive to produce than its toluene-based counterpart. Water-based glues will get manufacturers off the hot seat since they don't produce a high when sniffed. H. B. Fuller's Johnson told NCR that a water-based glue was "not in the cards right now," though he predicted, "we'll be the first ones to have it." Yet Henkel, with considerable hype, introduced a waterbased contact cement here last month. Ricardo Carrasco, the company's regional manager for glue sales, acknowledged the new glue may not be suitable for many small shoemakers since it's not waterproof. Small shops also can't afford the hot-melt technology – sans toluene – used by many larger manufacturers. Both representatives from H. B. Fuller and Henkel claimed that production and sales of toluene-based glues by national manufacturers have soared in the wake of their decisions to partially or completely remove themselves form the market. Waechter said "misinformed pressure groups" were responsible for the decision at Henkel's headquarters in Germany to discontinue toluene-based products in the region. "(Pressure groups) only help local manufacturers sell the product," he said, "which is what they're doing. They're now selling it to our customers, and nobody is going to stop them. All the organizations did was stop Fuller and Henkel." LEGISLATIVE PRESSURE Besides facing a lawsuit in the United States for its marketing policies here, H. B. Fuller is once again facing regional legislators angry about inhalant abuse. Lawmakers in several countries are considering legislation banning substances like toluene unless a deterrent is added. In November, Rafael Barrios Flores, a member of the right-wing National Advancement Party and a deputy in Guatemala's Congress, introduced a bill here promising the safety and health of street children, which includes an anti-toluene clause. A dentist and public health expert, Barrios says studies show 85 percent of street children abusing drugs use toluene-based products. "There are other things they can inhale," he told NCR, "but they cost more and are more difficult to obtain than glue." Although Barrios represents a party supported by large industrialists, he criticized a marketplace "where glue is sold and distributed freely, where nobody restricts its sale, which means we live in a country that permits the unrestricted trafficking of drugs." Activists in the region are pressuring police agencies to use existing laws against those who sell glue to kids. In August 1993, after pressure from Casa Alianza and the government's human rights prosecutor, police here arrested nine people in The Hole and charged them with selling glue to children, mostly girls, involved in Prostitution. Those arrested were sentenced in July of last year to two to four years of prison. People selling toluene-based glue to minors have been arrested in Tegucigalpa. Activists report that while distribution to kids continues unabated, the arrests have forced sellers to be more discreet. They suggest that police intended the 1993 arrests only as a show of concern, not as a new belligerency against drug dealers. Indeed, seven people arrested last August in The Hole for selling glue to minors had charges against them quietly dropped in January. Harris said the arrests, although few, have helped. "Now we can say to people, `Hey, if you're gonna sell glue, look what happened to these guys,'" Harris compared it to the regional struggle against human rights violations. "Until you start to get a few concrete cases where you can break that impunity, people don't take you seriously." STARTRIBUNE (Minneapolis) 4 January 1995 H. B. FULLER SUED IN TEEN'S DEATH By Paul McEnroe and Susan E. Peterson A lawsuit alleging that H.B. Fuller's toxic glue products caused the 1993 death of a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul. The suit promises to escalate the debate surrounding corporate responsibility and the plight of tens of thousands of Central American children who are addicted to inhalants. The suit charges that for years leading up to his death, Joel Linares suffered severe physical and neurological injuries as a result of inhaling Fuller's products, chief among them Resistol, a glue popular among Central American street children. Linares died Jan. 4, 1993. The suit claims that his death was a result of negligence by Fuller because it knew that the glue products containing the chemical toluene were lethal and that it did not issue adequate warnings that usage would cause injury and death. If U.S. District Judge Michael Davis certifies the case for a jury trial, the plaintiff's attorney, Scott Hendler of Austin, Texas, will seek class-action status by spring, Hendler said Wednesday. Such an action could create a potentially immense liability against the company because of the large number of children in Central America who sniff glue. The suit claims that Fuller designed its "products in such a way that children such as Joel Linares would be attracted to the products' fumes despite the company's knowledge of the dangers [its] products posed to children." It also claims that Fuller failed to warn adequately about product dangers. Fuller officials said they will ask their lawyers to seek immediate dismissal of the suit. Fuller said it will seek dismissal on the grounds that if the suit belongs in any court, it belongs in Guatemala. "Substance abuse is a sad and pervasive social problem, whether it involves alcohol, prescription drugs, illegitimate drugs, gasoline, aerosol products or other inhalants," said Janice Symchych, an attorney representing Fuller. "Good evidence suggests that substance-abusing children will seek out one substance or another depending on what's available in their environment. This shows that the problem should not be treated as a legal issue related to any given product and that it is beyond the logical scope of the courts to resolve." She said it was "grossly illogical to put American courts in the position of addressing the social problems of Central American street children." After a July 1992 decision by its board of directors, Fuller said it would stop sales of Resistol in Central America "wherever it is being misused." As a result, Fuller said it was removing the product from retail sales in Guatemala and Honduras. At the time, Fuller's decision was praised widely by business analysts and editorial writers, who also lauded the company's position that inhalant abuse should be attacked on a broader scale. Fuller has prided itself on funding social, educational and drug treatment programs to try to help street children. But now the suit is forcing the company's actions to be re-examined. Children's advocates in Central America, as well as in the United States, say that Fuller continues to sell Resistol in Guatemala and Honduras and that it is easily available to children throughout Central America. Tighter controls on distribution would have prevented Fuller's products from "falling into the hands of children such as Joel Linares," the suit claims. "An unknown number of children have died from these injuries." Advocates say Fuller should add harsh-smelling oil of mustard seed to its glue products to discourage inhalant abuse. The Linares death could have been avoided if such an additive was used, the suit claims. But Fuller maintains that adding another toxic ingredient into its adhesives would harm legitimate users such as shoemakers. Further, it said it recently changed the formula of its industrial glue in Central America, removing toluene and adding cyclohexane, a fouler smelling toxic chemical. Fuller said it has been trying to come up with a water-based, nontoxic replacement glue for years, and in 1994 it formed a partnership with an unnamed chemical company to develop such a product. US Paint and Glue Manufacturer Selling Death to Sniffers An internet article from "Casa Alianza - Regional Office" PORTLAND, MAINE, USA – October 1, 1996. The lives of thousands of children in Latin America were rendered null and void by a U.S. District Court judge this week who opted to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed against H.B. Fuller Company of Minnesota on behalf of the family of a Guatemalan teenager who died from sniffing the company's narcotic shoe glue. The case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds. Judge Michael Davis ruled that the case is "immutably Guatemalan." The plaintiff is a Guatemalan family, and the defendant is the Guatemalan subsidiary of the St. Paul adhesives manufacturer. Forum non conveniens. Known as socially responsible in the United States, H.B. Fuller has for 15 years marketed solvent-based shoe glues in Latin America despite knowledge that its products are being abused by thousands of street children. Lauded for its progressive personnel policies and charitable giving in the Twin Cities, this same company, however, has as recently as 1995 marketed lead paints and highly toxic and carcinogenic pentachlorophenol products in Latin America, despite knowledge that these products are banned or controlled in the United States, and that the biggest victims of lead paint poisoning are children. H.B. Fuller says it follows the laws of the countries it operates in. So, where there is no law against their toxic products, they have felt free to sell them, no matter what the cost to human life. In this increasingly globalized world economy, few checks exist against the excesses of multinationals like H.B. Fuller. They are one of many corporations who – working on the global frontiers where law has not yet been written to protect the people - can get away with murder. Contact: Kathleen Begala. Ph 00 11 1 (301) 504-0580 Ext. 1193 Worse than heroin Solvent-based shoe glues as a principal drug company operating without legal permit: The Costa Rican Ministry of Health has ordered the US multinational H.B. Fuller Costa Rica, S.A. to comply with local laws and change the label on their toxic glue products to reflect both the toxicity and addictiveness of their Resistol contact cement. Responding to a formal complaint from the child advocacy group "Casa Alianza", a branch of the New York based "Covenant House", the Costa Rican Ministry of Health emitted an April 27th, 1998 order to the subsidiary of the St. Paul, Minnesota based company to "proceed to change the labels of the cited product within the prudential period of fifteen working days". H.B. Fuller's operations for the whole of Latin America are based in San Jose. The Director of the Registry and Controls section of the Ministry, Ernesto Hodgson Dixon, also ordered that "the labels of the products which are actually in the national market" also be changed within the same period "from the date of issuance of this resolution". Although they are chemicals, solvent based shoe glues are the principal "drug" of choice amongst the estimated 40 million street children in Latin America. Street children, often as young as just 5 or 6 years old, inhale the potent solvent based glues to try and suppress feelings of hunger, cold and abandonment. The toluene or cyclohexane solvents used in shoe glues cause permanent and irreversible brain damage in the pre-pubescent street children. Casa Alianza has led a seven year campaign against the H.B. Fuller company and other multinationals, trying to halt the use of dangerous solvents in such readily available over-the-counter products. The global attention brought to this campaign has resulted in major articles against H.B. Fuller in the New York Times as well as major television reports on US, Spanish and British stations. A federal lawsuit was brought against H.B. Fuller in the Minnesota state courts in 1996, accusing the H.B. Fuller company in the wrongful death of Joel Linares, a 16-year-old street child from Guatemala who died from kidney failure as a result of sniffing Resistol glue. The case, presented by Austin (Texas) lawyer Scott Hendler, was eventually dismissed on geographical grounds without responding to its content. A further lawsuit against the billion dollar company is reportedly planned. H.B. Fuller has stated publicly that they comply with all the laws in the countries where they operate. This is obviously just another un-truth as Fuller has now come unstuck once again, commented Bruce Harris, the Executive Director of Latin American Programs for Covenant House. As a result of Harris' and Covenant House's complaint to the Ministry of Health in this Central American nation, it was discovered that H.B. Fuller Costa Rica has been functioning without an "Operating Permit" as required by Costa Rican law. So much for truth and compliance, commented Harris. The Fortune 500 multinational was, until recently, headed by Walter Kissling, a Costa Rican. This stuff is worse than heroin, explained famed neurologist Herb Schaumberg, referring to the solvent based glues in a recent international television production on the plight of "resistoleros", as Honduran street children are generically called after H.B. Fuller's Resistol product. With heroin you get addicted, but it doesn't destroy your brain like this stuff does. This is very insidious. The children do not realize it is happening to them. The Latin American branch of Covenant House annually serves more than 4,000 street children in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, almost all of whom have consumed solvent based glues. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year treating children who have been permanently damaged as a result of multinationals going after high profit margins at whatever social cost, continues the British born Harris. H.B. Fuller reports 13% of global sales yet 27% of global profits from its Latin American operations. It's about time that companies put people before profits, demanded Harris, who has been successful in pushing for stricter legislation in all Central American countries. The labeling requirements introduced here in Costa Rica were as a result of our working with the Ministry of Health, helping them to assume their responsibility for the street children of their country. Now they must enforce their laws against renegade multinationals who are only interested in the almighty dollar at whatever cost. H.B. Fuller has until Tuesday, May 19th, 1998 to comply with the Costa Rican law or face further legal actions. Copyright (c) 2001 ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law 2002 INTERNATIONAL LAW WEEKEND PROCEEDINGS: NOTE AND COMMENT: THE PLIGHT OF THE STREET CHILDREN OF LATIN AMERICA WHO ARE ADDICTED TO SNIFFING GLUE, AND THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS – Spring, 2002, 8 ILSA J Int'l & Comp L 599 Author: Charmaine J. Comprosky *Excerpt: I. INTRODUCTION A great concern for the international community is protecting the rights of children around the world.1 Currently, there are approximately 100 million abandoned street children in the world.2 In Latin American countries there are approximately forty million street children;3 and there is an estimation that this number will continue to increase, as poverty becomes more widespread in the urban areas of these countries.4 The street children in Latin American countries like Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, and Columbia learn daily how to survive on the rough streets of the cities.5 Their lives often involve sleeping on the cold hard cement, begging for food, stealing from the locals and tourists, selling their bodies for sex, and sniffing glue in order to escape reality.6 Many of these children end up on the city streets of these Latin American countries because they have made a choice to fend for themselves in the harsh environment of the streets, as opposed to fight to survive in families torn apart by poverty, alcoholism and abuse.7 Thus, part one of this comment will give a general overview of the street children in Latin America; examine some of the problems these street children face on a daily basis; and discuss the children's addiction to sniffing glue. Part two will give a general overview of the involvement of H.B. Fuller Co., an American corporation that has manufactured the glue in its own Central American plants.8 Part ... RECENT LITIGATION: Active Cases for the 60TH DISTRICT COURT Last Posting: December 1, 2013 Next Posting: January 1, 2014 Jefferson County, Texas B-0150896-AV FINUS COLLINS, ET AL H. B. FULLER COMPANY INC PLAINTIFF'S NAME DEFENDANT'S NAME ABNEY DONALD RAY CAUSE NO. FILED H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ALLDREDGE CLARENCE JACKSON ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ALLDREDGE WAYNE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ARMSTRONG CHARLES EDWARD ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ARNOLD WALTER MONROE H B FULLER COMPANY INC BAIN ROBSON ROOSEVELT JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC BALDWIN WILBURN FRANKLIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BALL JAMES ERWIN ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BALLARD ABRAHAM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BARCLIFT WARREN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BARKER ROBERT ALLEN ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BARKER VERNON JESSIE ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BATES ROBERT LEE BATTON WILLIAM LEON BEASLEY ALTON NATHANIEL BELLE JOHNNIE EARL BENNETT GORDON H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BENSON C BLAND ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BENTON CURTIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BIBBS ALBERT BOATRIGHT SYLVIA LOUISE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BOSWELL JAMES H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BOYD HOWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRACKETT BOBBY DALE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRACKIN JUDGE POOLE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRACKNELL CLARENCE WILLIAM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRADFORD JOHN WESLEY SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRADLEY ORBIE BILL H B FULLER COMPANY INC BRADSHAW CLEVE ELLIOTT H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRASHER FRANK FORREST H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRASHER HARLAND FREMON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BROGDEN NORMAN TUCKER H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BROOKS DILE VERLIN ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BROWN ELI JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BROWN JAMES EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BROWN JOHN EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BROWN LEE GRANT ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BROWN PETER EDWARD SR ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BROWN ROBERT H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRUCE BILLY MAXWELL ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BRUNDIDGE T F H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BUFORD TIMOTHY ALGENON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BUNT ALBERT NELSON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BURGESS KERWAN MCGHEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 BYRAM MARVIN EUGENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CALE WILLIAM RUSSELL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CALHOUN JOHN ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CALLICOTT SIDNEY JOE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CALLICOTT WILLIE MILTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CAMP SYLVIA H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CARTHEN EDDIE WILLIAM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CHANDLER HARRY LOUIE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CHANEY WILLIE FRANK SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CHAPMAN LARKIN JOE CHAPPELL WILLAIM BURT H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CHAVERS ABRAHAM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CHEATHAM OZELL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CLANTON WILBURN LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CLARK EARL EUGENE JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COCHRAN HOWARD EDWARD COLE WILLIE JR COLEMAN WILLIE EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COLEMAN WINSTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COLEY THOMAS TERRIEL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COLLINS FINUS CONN CHARLES ELTON COOKSEY ELLIS LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COOPER HUGH WARREN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CORK WILLIAM THOMAS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CORLEY LEONARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COSBY DAN MARION H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COWAN JAMES SR ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COWAN JOHNNIE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 COX CLIFFORD LARRY H B FULLER COMPANY INC CRAWFORD TOM FRANK H B FULLER COMPANY INC CRITTENDEN JOSEPH DEAN H B FULLER COMPANY INC CROSS HUBERT ALONZO ESTATE CROWDER JOHN EDMOND CRUCE JOHN HERBERT CRUSOE HARVEY H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC CULLI PHILLIP JARMAN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CUNNINGHAM CLARENCE GAINES H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CUNNINGHAM DOUGLAS DAVID H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CURD JACK RONALD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CURRIER TROY EUGENE ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 CYLAR WILLIE ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC DANIELL GORDAN MILTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DAVIS CLARENCE SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DAVIS HOYT WILLIAM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DAVIS PRESTON RAY ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DAVIS THOMAS ARNOLD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DAVIS VERNON WILSON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DAWSON EDDIE JAMES H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DEGGES WILLIAM C H B FULLER COMPANY INC DENNEY BAYRON VOICE ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DESHAZO MARGARET VIRGINIA DEXTER OLIVER FRANK H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC DIETRICH HOMER JOSEPH H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DOBBINS JOE HOWARD ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DOBBINS LONIE LORENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DOCKINS GENE LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DONALD RALPH H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DOSS HENRY ROSS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DRIVER EDMOND HARRINGTON ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 DUKE BARNEY TOM H B FULLER COMPANY INC DUNLAP JAMES ROBERT ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 EARLEY WILLIAM PIERCE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 EASTERWOOD L D H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 EDMONDSON JOHN WALTER EDWARDS CARMINE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 EDWARDS LEMON MACK H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ELLENBURG JIMMY RAY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ENGLAND JAMES BRITTON SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 EVANS JAMES WILFORD ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FARRINGTON JOHN ABBINGTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FERRELL DONALD PRUITT FERRELL JOHN EBA H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FIELDS ELLIS PARKER H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FIELDS JOHN HENRY JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FINE WALLACE EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FISHER DONALD FRANCIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FLECK JULIUS CONRAD H B FULLER COMPANY INC FLENOR MONROE JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FORD BILLY JOE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FORD CECIL RAY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FRANKLIN HOWARD EUGENE SR FRANKLIN PAUL HERMAN H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC FULLER JAMES DAVID H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FULLER WALTER L ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FULLER WALTER LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 FURLINE THOMAS EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GAIDIS JOSEPH ALBERT H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GANDY JAMES H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GANDY LUCION LENLEY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GARDNER LECIL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GARMON JAMES WILLAIM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GENTRY RAWDY WILLIAM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GIBSON CHARLES CLIFTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GILLARD KEITH VERNELL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GILLILAND JAMES WESLEY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GILMORE ROOSEVELT ESTATE GLASS ROSANNA H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC GLEATON FERMER EDWARD JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GLENN CLYDE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GLOVER JAMES A H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GOOCH ERNEST H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GOODWIN VIRGIL HUGH ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GOOLSBY HERBERT MARSHALL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GRACE ROBERT LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC GRAHAM BILLY FRANK H B FULLER COMPANY INC GRAHAM DONALD STEWART H B FULLER COMPANY INC GRANT JAMES EDWARD ESTATE GRAVES PERRY LEWIS GRAY JESSE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC GREEN EDWARD LEROY H B FULLER COMPANY INC GRIFFIN JOE FRED H B FULLER COMPANY INC GRIFFIN TROY CODY H B FULLER COMPANY INC GRIMES JAMES CALVIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC GUFFEY EDGAR NAPOLEON H B FULLER COMPANY INC GURGANUS DESSLER H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GUTHRIE OWEN LEVI H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 GUTHRIE THOMAS WADE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 AMMOCK LUTHER CLEVELAND HANEY SAMUEL MILTON HARDY JOHN L H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC HARPER LAWRENCE SAMUEL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HARRISON ALEXANDER SAMUEL ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HARTLEY WILLIAM T H B FULLER COMPANY INC HEAD ROBERT S ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC HELMS JAMES EARL H B FULLER COMPANY INC HENDERSON TONY RUDOLPH B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HESTER JAMES DAVID SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HICKS RICHARD EUGENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HIGGINBOTHAM R C H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HIGGINS JOHN HENRY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HILL JOHN AMOS ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HILL JOSEPH LOUIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HILL MITCHELL ELLIS ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HILLIARD TOMMY LEVARN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HODGE EDWARD FRANKLIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HOLLIDAY ROBERT LEROY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HONEYCUTT ROBERT PARKER ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HORSLEY ARNOLD MILLARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HOSKINS THOMAS EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HOWARD JAMES DOUGLAS SR HOWTON MORRIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HUBBARD MARVIN CLARENCE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HUBBARD OSCAR MARION H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HUDGINS WILMER FRANCIS HUDSON WILLIAM RAY HUFFSTUTLER RALPH ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HUMPHREY JESSE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HUMPHRIES JOE RAY ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 HUNTER NED H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JACKS CLIFFORD A H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JACKSON ORLANDO H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JACKSON OSCAR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JACKSON SAMUEL HOWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC JACOBS HENRY EUGENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JENNINGS COLEMAN CONWELL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JETER JAMES EARL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JINKS ROBERT EDWIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC JOHNSON AUBREY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JOHNSON HAVELL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JOHNSON HOWARD WINSTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JOHNSON LEWIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC JOHNSON MELVIN FRANKLIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC JOHNSON ORVIS D H B FULLER COMPANY INC JOHNSON ROOSEVELT H B FULLER COMPANY INC JOINER JOSEPH KIRKLAND JR JONES BENNIE LEE JONES DONAL H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JONES JIMMIE ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JONES JUDGE C ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JONES LELL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JONES MALCOLM SYLVESTER JONES ROBERT LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JORDAN BILLY DARIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JORDAN OLEN LAVOY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JORDAN RALPH BERRY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 JORDON JAMES HARLAN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 KELLY JIMMY JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 KIKER PAUL LEON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 KIMBREL CHESLEY EUGENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 KING CONNIS JEWEL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 KING JIMMY H B FULLER COMPANY INC KIZZIAH JAMES ROLAND H B FULLER COMPANY INC KORNIKER JULIEN H B FULLER COMPANY INC KUYKENDALL JOHN ALBERT H B FULLER COMPANY INC LACEY REGINALD LOUIS ESTATE LANDERS ISAAC HOWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC LANE HUGH ROGER H B FULLER COMPANY INC LANIER LEONARD THOMAS H B FULLER COMPANY INC LAROQUE MERLIN REGINALD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LAWSON BILLY RAY ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LEE BOBBY EDWARD ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LEE DAVIS LEWIS LETT CHARLES HOWARD SR LEWIS JOHNNIE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LIMBAUGH FLOYD WAYNE ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LIMBAUGH JAMES CURTIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LITTLE JIMMY RAY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LITTLETON FREDDIE EARL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LLOYD JACQUELINE PHILLIPS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LLOYD RICHARD DOUGLAS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LOGAN ROBERT JERRY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LOLLEY JAMES ALFRED H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 LONGMIRE EULYSS DAVID H B FULLER COMPANY INC LUNCEFORD WILLIAM AUBREY LYDE WILLIAM MARTIN BOBBY RAY MASISAK PAT K H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MATTHEWS BEN SR ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MATTHEWS BOBBY ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MAULL RICHARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC MCARDLE JAMES JOSEPH MCCALL MIKE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC MCCARTNEY CHARLES RICHARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MCDOWELL CLYDE COURTNEY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MCELROY CLIFTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MCFALL WILLIAM HARRY MCGUFFIE DONALD LEE ESTATE MCGUIRE WILLIAM HUBERT H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MCKAIG DERRELL CALVIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MCKOWN THOMAS DEXTER JR ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MCMICKENS JAMES THOMAS ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MEADOWS HERSHEL ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MEADOWS WILLIAM FLOYD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MILES DANNY GENE MILLIGAN KIRBY H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MINOR EULMA BRONSON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MOODY MARION HENRY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MOOR CURTIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MOORE EARL ELMO H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MOORE JACK WAYNE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MOORE JAMES ROSCOE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MOORE JOHN HAYWOOD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MOORE JOHNNIE BROOKS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MOORE ROBERT ALLEN MORRIS CLARENCE JAMES MORRIS CLAUDE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MORRISON RONNIE CLYDE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MUNN JAMES HARRELL SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 MURDOCH JOHN SYLVESTER MYERS BUFORD RAY MYERS VALERA GRIMMETT NIBLETT CARL AUBREY H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 NIX VIVIAN OLSEN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 NORMAN WALLACE CAMPBELL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 NORRIS FRANK H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 NORRIS JAMES HOWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 NORRIS LEE ALLEN ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 NORRIS MELVIN EUGENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 NUNN ELIJAH H B FULLER COMPANY INC ODONNELL HERBERT CURTIS OLIVER MACK H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC OUSLEY BOBBY GENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC OWENS FRANKLIN DELANO H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 PARDON EMMETT ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 PARHAM ARTHUR AARON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 PARKER JOHN HERBERT H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 PARKER WILLIAM RAYMOND H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 PARKER WILLIAM SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 PATMON BILL H B FULLER COMPANY INC PAYNE JAMES LEE JR ESTATE PENWELL CLAUDE ALVIS ESTATE PETERSON GAINES GERALD PHILLIPS GENE HAYWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 POLLARD HENRY CORNELIUS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 POPE MARVIN CURTIS ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 POWELL RUBEN ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 POWELL RUFUS ALEX ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 PUGH WILL H B FULLER COMPANY INC QUICK FRED BURNUM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 QUINN JAMES ROBERT ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 QUINN WILLARD LEON ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 RAMSEY LOUIE H ESTATE RANSOM SAMUEL H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC RAY COLLIE ETHRIDGE JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC RAY SAMUEL EMMITT H B FULLER COMPANY INC RAYFORD MORRIS EUGENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC REAVES HARRELL JEAN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 REES RICHARD FARLEY SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 REESE RUFUS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 REEVES THOMAS ELGIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 RICE DAVID WEST H B FULLER COMPANY INC RICH WILLIAM ARNOLD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 RICHARD WILLIAM THURSTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 RICHARDS ROY ARTHUR ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 RICHARDSON ANDREW LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 RIGGS FARRELL WADE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ROBERSON RICHARD JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ROBERTS ELBERT F JR ROLAND JAMES ALFRED H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC ROOKS ERSKEL MARSHALL ESTATE RUSHING R J H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 RUSSELL THOMAS LEON SR SAFFORD JANIE MAE SANDERS WILLIE FRED H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC SCHULTZ DONALD MARK H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SELLERS CORNELIUS CRITTENDEN ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SHAW CECIL HOBART H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SHAW LEON ERSKINE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SHELBY FLEMING ARTHUR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SHIVERS WILLIAM LIDDELL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SIMPSON JAMES HARDEN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SIMS ENOCH YOUNG H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SIMS HENRY LEROY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SINYARD GRADY MALVERN ESTATE SMITH BENNIE SMITH EDDIE LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SMITH JAMES FLOYD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SMITH JOHN SAMUEL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SMITH JOSEPH BYNUM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SMITH ROY THOMAS H B FULLER COMPANY INC SMITH WALLACE BERLEY SMITH WILLIAM HARRISON H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SMITH WILLIE JAMES H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SMITHERMAN JAMES FRANKLIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SNOW CHARLES THOMAS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SNOW JOSEPH ERSKINE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 STATON JAMES WALTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 STEELE WILLIAM JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC STEPHENS DONALD BAIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 STEWART CHARLES EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 STISHER BUELL CHARLESTON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 STOCKDALE DENNIS JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 STOCKS J B H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 STONE JAMES CLARENCE ESTATE STOVALL ELZO JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 STRACNER FRANK EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 SULLIVAN RUBY ELEANOR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TALIAFERRO HORACE NORMAN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TAYLOR HUBERT VIRGIL ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TEAL STEPHEN GEORGE ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TEMPLIN WALTER E JR ESTATE THOMAS JOHN MATTHEW H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC THOMPSON PETE H B FULLER COMPANY INC THORNE JAMES HIRAM H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TINKER JACKSON HARVEY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TINSLEY VELMA JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TOLES IRA H B FULLER COMPANY INC TOWNSEND LESTER M TRUITT MARVIN LEE ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TUCKER DALFORD LEE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TUCKER JACK WOODSON H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TURNER RAYMOND H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TURNER SAMUEL BARNARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 TURNER WALKER H B FULLER COMPANY INC UNDERWOOD BOBBY CHARLES H B FULLER COMPANY INC VANDEGRIFT MICKEY JOE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 VINING HUEWTT HENRY ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 VINTSON ROBERT TERRY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WADE EARNEST H B FULLER COMPANY INC WADSWORTH CARL EUGENE H B FULLER COMPANY INC WALKER HEBER EUGENE ESTATE WALKER JAMES THOMAS WALKER JOHNNY H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WALTON WILLIAM FRANK H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WALTON WILLIAM LOUIS ESTATE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WARD ARTHUR OSBORNE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WARREN JOHN H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WATKINS TOMMIE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WATSON EARTHA H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WAYTON JOSEPH D H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WEBB HENRY LAWRENCE H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WHEELER RICHARD JONES H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WHITE HAROLD TERRIL H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WHITE JAMES HOWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WHITE THOMAS GRADY H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WHITTON ROBERT EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC WILLARD GEORGE H B FULLER COMPANY INC WILLIAMS CHARLES H B FULLER COMPANY INC WILLIAMS HILL JR H B FULLER COMPANY INC WILLIAMS JAMES HERBERT ESTATE WILSON CARL FRANKLIN H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC WILSON HENRY LOUIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WILSON STEPHEN AUBREY SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WINSLETT WILLIAM JACK SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WOODLEY RAYMOND EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WOODWARD WILLIAM ELLIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WOODY JOHN EDWARD H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 WRIGHT CORNELIUS JR WRIGHT EDDIE WYATT BILLY JOE YOUNG CLEVELAND H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 YOUNG OLIVER PARKER H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 YOW WILLIAM NORRIS H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 ZEIGLER JAMES AARON SR H B FULLER COMPANY INC B-0150896-AV 03/10/06 Could H.B. Fuller adhesives, killing tens of thousands of Latin street children, also be responsible for gluing smokers' lungs closed ?
Report "H. B. FULLER, INC. ''Public-enemy number . . . ?'' Could H.B. Fuller adhesives, killing tens of thousands of Latin street children, also be responsible for gluing smokers' lungs closed ?"