Motorola Inc. is facing a lawsuit from a group of former employees alleging that exposure to hazardous chemicals caused birth defects in their children.

The suit, filed last week in Cook County Circuit Court, Illinois, names 71 plaintiffs. The filing also lists more than 30 children who, according to the suit, suffered injuries as a result of their parents’ exposure to hazardous substances used to make semiconductors. The former Motorola workers were employed at company facilities in Schaumburg, Illinois and Arizona.

According to the lawsuit, their collective employment period stretches between 1965 and 2007. The filing enumerates a variety of physical disabilities and developmental problems suffered by the employees’ children, including cerebral palsy, autism, blindness, spina bifida, language delays and epilepsy.

The lawsuit alleges that “the reproduction dangers of chemical exposure to Motorola’s semiconductor workers was known to Motorola’s top executives in the early 1980s.” The filing also said the company failed to properly protect its workers from exposure to certain harmful chemicals despite published research from industry and academic circles that outlined these risks.

Motorola officials were not immediately available for comment.