The widow of a factory worker alleges in a lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Orange County, Calif., that her 36-year-old husband died from long-term exposure to a deadly chemical at the world's largest manufacturer of surfboard blanks.

The wrongful-death lawsuit filed last week against Clark Foam Products provides a partial explanation into the Laguna Niguel, Calif., company's abrupt closure in December.

In legal papers, Maria Teresa Barriga claims her husband, Martin Barriga, and other employees ran with open buckets of toxic toluene diisocyanate "sloshing" on their hands, arms, torsos, legs and feet.

During lunch breaks, Barriga and other workers warmed their meals in the same microwave used to heat the chemical, the lawsuit alleges.

Toluene diisocyanate, known as TDI, is commonly used to make foam products and paint. When heated, the chemical becomes toxic and can cause severe respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central-nervous-system problems. It is also a possible carcinogen, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Barriga's death certificate lists cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, inflamed and scarred lung sacs, and arterial inflammation as causes of death. A biopsy showed he also suffered from a cancerous chest tumor.

Clark Foam founder Gordon Clark, also named in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment yesterday. But he had alluded to the possibility of litigation in a five-page letter addressed to his customers Dec. 5, the day his business closed.

He said excessive government regulation and pending lawsuits — including one from a widow of an employee "who died from cancer" — had forced him to shutter Clark Foam. Because his company had been making 9 out of 10 surfboard blanks in the world, the move sent the price of boards skyrocketing for months.

"Our official safety record as an employer is not very good," he wrote in his only public statement. "We have three ex-employees on full workman's compensation disability — evidently for life. I may be looking at very large fines, civil lawsuits and even time in prison."

Maria Teresa Barriga said in an interview this week that her husband was a model family man, an avid soccer player and reliable breadwinner who held his $14-per-hour Clark Foam job for 16 years.

She said he hid the extent of his health problems from her.

His death "was a terrible surprise," said the tearful mother of two boys, ages 4 and 11. "I could not imagine he would die. It isn't fair. I need him here."

Barriga attorney John McCarty of Irvine, Calif., said the family "knew he was sick, but they didn't know the extent of it. He wanted to protect them."

In 2002, Barriga quit his job at Clark to become a truck driver, saying he was tired of his work routine. His wife said she believes now he was trying to get away from the chemicals.

A devoted soccer player, Martin Barriga stopped playing in 2003 because he had trouble breathing. He coached children and refereed adults instead.

He made light of his frequent bloody noses and the blood in his mouth, his wife said.

Maria Teresa Barriga, who works as a maid in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., turned to an attorney with the encouragement and help of her employer, Michelle Barth.

"Every day, he seemed to have a different health problem," Barth said. "It was something no one could put together. Nothing made sense. He took very good care of himself and was very athletic."

Maria Barriga says she wants company officials to be held accountable.

Clark Foam was founded after Clark and surfboard maker Hobie Alter discovered a process in the late 1950s to mass-produce lightweight foam-and-fiberglass surfboards instead of heavier boards made from balsa wood.

The technique helped spark the rise of the modern surfing culture, and Clark maintained a near monopoly on the surfboard-blank industry for four decades.

Clark Foam abruptly closed after 44 years in business in late 2005, after Clark wrote a letter to customers outlining his long and increasingly expensive battle to meet government regulations over 25 years.

He said "about 20 years ago," Occupational Safety Health Administration inspectors "came down on our TDI use very hard and more or less tied one arm behind our back."

OSHA officials said yesterday that they hadn't inspected Clark Foam since 1990. But Clark said he continued to struggle to meet tighter standards of other regulatory agencies.

"They simply grind away until you either quit or they find methods of bringing serious charges or fines that force you to close," he wrote, adding that his time now will be spent trying to "extract myself from the mess that I have created for myself."