Articles Posted in Toxic Chemicals

One of the most horrific events that can happen to a community is chemical dumping or other toxic spills. Once a dangerous chemical is released into the environment, it can have irreversible and devastating impacts that can lead to serious health consequences or even death. Recently, a plaintiff from West Virginia was awarded $5.1 million in a lawsuit alleging that major international chemical maker DuPont acted recklessly when it dumped toxic waste into waterways in the state. The plaintiff, a 56-year-old man, suffered testicular cancer as a result of coming into contact with C-8, a chemical agent that DuPont uses in manufacturing Teflon.

Filed in October 2013, the lawsuit alleges that DuPont released waste material containing C-8 from its Washington Works Plant located in Wood County “directly into the air, the Ohio River, and unlined non-hazardous waste landfills in the vicinity of the plant and local drinking wells.” The lawsuit also claims that DuPont knew the substances would contaminate the surface waters and the subterranean waters.

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A recent case being brought by a mother in Texas highlights the many not-so-obvious ways that contamination can result in serious injuries and even death. According to her complaint, the woman’s son died tragically as a result of her apartment complex’s failure to address contamination leaking from a cesspool. The mother was 22 weeks pregnant when she became so ill that her physicians were required to prematurely induce labor in an attempt to save her baby’s life.

The doctors concluded that the plaintiff had a severe E. coli infection, resulting from water in the cesspool leaching into various places on the property. As a result of her infection, her unborn baby developed a bacterial infection called chorioamnionitis. This infection, which targets the uterus, is commonly derived from E. coli. The baby was unable to survive and died roughly two hours after the induced delivery.

The mother and her husband lived at the apartment complex starting in December 2013. The family first noticed that they were experiencing health issues around June 2015, including urinary tract infections, diarrhea, and vomiting. Other residents at the apartment complexes reported experiencing similar health maladies. The plaintiff first learned that she was with child in November 2015 and became seriously ill in February 2016. During that same month, a company was hired to work on the apartment complex. They reported that a large cesspool had been discovered underneath the building and that it had contaminated the drinking water for the building. They also submitted a proposal to fix the problem, but the apartment complex has done nothing to fix the cesspool. The apartment complex operator denies having received a report identifying E. coli on the premises and denies that the plaintiffs ever reported their illnesses.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) published a final report in March 2015 indicating that the commonly used herbicide glyphosate, packaged and marketed under the retail label Roundup, is a probable human carcinogen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which performed the assessment, based its conclusion on opinions from 17 different experts hailing from 11 countries. The group met in Lyon, France to discuss the chemical’s potential dangers, in addition to five other organophosphate-based pesticides.

In its report, IARC also noted that the product garnered roughly $6 billion in annual sales. The chemical was first developed and marketed by major agricultural chemical maker Monsanto in the 1970s.

Today, roughly 80 percent of all genetically modified crops are engineered to be resistant to glyphosate, allowing producers to spray a hearty dose of the herbicide on the crops to kill other weeds that may affect crop health and yields. Some sources suggest that between 1996 and 2011, the planting of Roundup Ready crops increased, correlating to the use of roughly 527 million pounds of herbicides in the U.S. The product is also commonly used in private lawn maintenance and home gardening.

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The Air Quality Management District in California has filed an action against SoCalGas, seeking damages associated with the large-scale methane gas leak that has caused numerous incidences of illness throughout the San Fernando Valley region. The lawsuit seeks a total of $440,000 in damages for each day of the leak, and it indicates that the leak has occurred for over 95 days. The lawsuit alleges claims for public nuisance as well as negligence against SoCalGas in the operation of its Aliso Canyon facility. The lawsuit also alleges that the defendant failed to respond properly to the leak.

The Aliso Canyon leak has made numerous headlines in recent weeks, as the uncontrolled and massive leak of natural gas from a well connected to an underground storage facility in the region continues. The gas storage facility is the second-largest storage facility of this type in the nation and belongs to Southern California Gas Company. Some sources indicate that the environmental harm that has occurred and continues to occur as a result of the leak is more substantial and severe than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that occurred off the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico during 2010. On January 6, 2016, California Governor Jerry Brown dubbed the gas leak a state of emergency.

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In mass tort cases, one of the toughest elements for plaintiffs to prove is that the product’s harmful nature caused the plaintiffs’ injuries. This is especially true in cases involving exposure to harmful chemicals. In our modern environment, there are a host of chemicals that we encounter on a daily basis, whether we know it or not. Determining whether a chemical is harmful and whether that chemical was the cause of the plaintiff’s alleged injuries can be a challenge.

The recent case of C.W. ex rel. Wood v. Textron, Inc. touched on this subject and provided the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal with an opportunity to review the types of scientific evidence that parties may offer in relation to proving both specific and general causation in a mass tort case.

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