The Injury Lawyer Directory Blog

Camp Lejeune, which has been the home of millions of people over the years, is now being cited as the cause of what could be millions of toxic exposure injuries. One Iowa woman, who was too sick to file her lawsuit herself, had lawyers file a lawsuit against the United States government for the cancer she has suffered from.

The woman lived on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina from 1980 until 1983 where she claims she drank tainted water. The toxic exposure lawsuit says that the water at that time contained a few different toxins that are known to cause cancer: benzene, tetrachloroethylene, and trichloroethylene.

Health officials believe that there are thousands of families who have suffered from cancer and other immune diseases as a result of exposure to toxic materials on the naval base. Now that it has become known that the negligent actions of the U.S. government are the cause of these injuries, many people are filing toxic exposure lawsuits to help recover damages for their personal injury.

The toxic exposure attorneys filing the lawsuit on behalf of the sick woman say that the government needs to be accountable for the injuries their negligent actions have caused over the years. The military is supposed to maintain a clean water supply, and the thousands of sick families are proof they have failed to do so.

If you have suffered an injury from exposure to toxic chemicals in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, please contact experienced Charlotte personal injury lawyer Robert J. Dewey, P.A. today to schedule your initial consultation.

The town of Cameron, Missouri, site of a cluster of brain tumors, has had lawsuits filed on its behalf by attorney Grant L. Davis. This was done after environmental testing performed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources showed the presence of arsenic and lead at the Rockwood Industries plant and at a nearby quarry. Insulation was also found buried in the ground around the plant. However, the EPA states that the chemicals found may not necessarily be the cause of the 68 reported brain tumors, although arsenic can affect the nervous system with toddlers more susceptible than adults.

One of Davis' class-action lawsuits requests medical monitoring and another is for property damage. Davis states that the people responsible for "illegally dumping" the chemicals should come forward to help with the medical monitoring. He also says that the property values in Cameron have been negatively affected due to the health developments around the town. Davis names companies that operated on the sites where the chemicals were found in one of the lawsuits as defendants.

If you or your loved one has developed an illness you believe was caused by environmental poisoning, please contact an attorney with experience in environmental litigation.

An early morning accident between an oil tanker and a barge on Wednesday has closed a nearly 50 mile stretch of the Mississippi River just south of the Port of New Orleans. According to port spokesman, Chirs Bonura, the closure is likely to continue for several days while teams are rushed in to clean up the heavy tar that is drifting south. As a result of the closure, no ships are able to get in or out of the port, which will probably lose nearly $100,000 a day. Not only are cargo ships affected, but the 2,050 passenger cruise ship Carnival Fantasy may not be able to reach its destination on Saturday.

Other ports are affected by the Port of New Orleans closure. The St. Bernard Port, Harbor and Terminal District has also been shut by the spill. This port receives roughly 260 calls a year from ships carrying cargo such as iron ore, plywood, steel, fertilizer, sand, and metals. The spill has also affected ships trying to reach the Port of South Louisiana from the south, as well as those traveling from the port to the mouth of the river. Ships carrying bulk cargo, such as ore, steel, grain, petroleum, and petrochemicals call on the Port of South Louisiana nearly 4,000 times a year.

While we are already aware of what damage oil spills can do to the environment, and most are likely to know the story of the Exxon Valdez, oil spills like this one that closed down the busiest river in the nation affect more than simply trees and animals. Although this spill will likely be cleaned up in several days, with the economic downturn we are going through, not to mention the price of fuel, can we really take this sort of thing for granted? And exposure to the toxins in the spill can cause irreparable harm to those who come in contact with them.

If you have been affected by an environmental disaster like this, please contact an attorney who has experience in toxic tort claims to see if you can seek compensation.

The town of Cameron, Missouri, whose population was 8,312 during the last census, has seen a rash of brain tumor diagnoses. More than a dozen people have been diagnosed this year alone. However, there is concern that this number will only go up. This is because no one is sure what is causing the tumors, though there is suspicion.

When the news was first reported in May, many thought that there must be something in the drinking water. They believed it was probably contaminated from the runoff of a nearby hog farm. Then the CDC and state officials began to look at manufacturing in the area, both past and present. Pesticides and chemicals were also looked at. Since May, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has been collecting air, water, and soil samples. They have most recently focused on the soil and groundwater where the Rockwool Insulation Plant used to be. Samples of air and drinking water have come back clean.

Rockwool Insulation, a maker of commercial and residential insulation, was ordered to pay over $400,000 for an OSHA penalty in 1998 and to improve safety and health at plants in Texas and North Carolina. However, the violations were due to employee exposure to carbon monoxide gas and not for potential environmental hazards. An anonymous source in Cameron told officials that hazardous materials were buried at the plant site in the 1990's.

The tumors that are hitting Cameron are benign, but even those can lead to complications that cause death. There are reports of headaches, seizures, and one person has died from a blood clot which lead to a stroke. The blood clot was caused by three surgeries in three weeks to remove a tumor behind the ear, and near the brain stem, of a 44-year-old fourth grade teacher.

It is estimated that 200,000 people are diagnosed with brain tumors every year. Of those, nearly 40,000 are primary brain tumors, or tumors that start in the brain rather than have metastasized there. While doctors claim that there is a possibility that Cameron may be the unlucky location of a "cluster," most residents believe it isn't simply coincidence. They have been encouraged to get MRIs and are anxiously waiting what the Department of Natural Resources will find in the samples taken from the Rockwool Insulation plant. Those samples will be made public in a few weeks.

If you or your loved one believes your illness may be the result of some kind of environmental poisoning, please contact an experienced personal injury lawyer in your area to see if you have a claim.

Casilda Shipping of Malta, Genesis Seatrading, Inc. of Greece, and the chief engineer of a cargo ship have been charged with the illegal dumping of oil and other waste into the ocean. Pantelis Thomas is charged with falsifying log books, as well as other charges related to illegal dumping.

According to the indictment filed by the Justice Department and US Coast Guard, when the Rio Gold arrived at the Port of Oakland in May, crew members complained that Thomas ordered them to dump oil and waste from the engine room into the ocean. The legal process of disposing waste involves waiting until the ship is able to unload onshore or burning it aboard the ship. The crew also alleges they were ordered to construct "magic pipes," which bypassed standard procedure and then dump the waste into the ocean. One crew member took a picture of one of the pipes while the ship was headed toward Oakland and turned it over to the Coast Guard.

Thomas is a Greek citizen, and has been barred from leaving the US until this is resolved. At least eight other foreign crew members who were witnesses must also stay in the country.

The Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988 made it unlawful for anyone to "dump, or transport for the purpose of dumping, sewage sludge or industrial waste into ocean waters after December 31, 1991." However, there are a number of other laws, both state and federal, in place to prevent this.

There are several risks to the public as a result of ocean dumping:

• Exposure to hazardous or toxic materials that wash up on the beaches
  
• Human consumption of marine organisms contaminated by toxins dumped in the ocean
  
• Occupational injuries as a result of accidents or exposure
  

Radioactive contamination of fish and shellfish poses a worldwide problem due to dumping nuclear waste into the ocean, and this country is no stranger to medical waste periodically washing up on the shore where beachgoers are exposed.

Furthermore, heavy commercial and recreational fishing goes on in many of the areas where ocean dumping occurs. There have been a number of flu-like illnesses as a result of swimming and surfing in areas that are polluted by ocean dumping in California.

If you or a loved one has been sickened or injured due to being exposed to something dumped into the ocean, please contact an injury lawyer with experience in environmental law or toxic tort to see if you have a claim.

A $350 million verdict has been upheld by a federal judge in a class-action lawsuit brought by residents living around the defunct Rocky Flats nuclear plant against its former operators. Rocky Flats is located 15 miles outside of Denver, Colorado. Judge John Kane stated in a ruling released Tuesday, May 20 that the suit could move forward and added eight percent interest compounded annually. This interest will be dated back to 1990, the year the suit was originally filed. This works out to more than $900 million for around 15,000 property owners to be paid by Dow Chemical Company and Rockwell International Corp., the two companies managing Rocky Flats from 1951 to 1988, the year the plant closed.

The suit charges that the nuclear weapons plant contaminated the surrounding area, lowering property values and "constituted a trespass and a nuisance. The suit was originally brought by a group of five people. In the 18 years since the suit, one of those five has died. Many of the plaintiffs still have no comment for the media regarding their apparent victory due to the fact that this case is not over. It is now destined for the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 1992, Rockwell International pleaded guilty to ten crimes against the environment, including five felonies, and paid $18.5 million in fines. However, lawyers for Rockwell and Dow contend a "harmless, miniscule amount" of plutonium was released from the plant. This plutonium then traveled downwind into the communities surrounding Rocky Flats. Both companies have sought to overturn the jury's ruling, claiming inconsistencies and that the punitive damages exceeded a cap.

A Brief History

Rocky Flats was the site where plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads were manufactured in the 1950s during the height of the Cold War. Contamination of the land began as early as 1959 when barrels of radioactive waste were found leaking into an open field. However, this was not made public until the 1970s when radioactive particles were detected in the air in Denver. Rocky Flats increased in size during the 1960s and a large number of plutonium-based products were stored there. Many of these also leaked, and in 1969, a fire in one of the buildings led to the costliest industrial accident in the US up to that point, but also led to safety upgrades. Rocky Flats made the news several times during the '70s, '80s, and '90s, but one of the highlights which led to the suspension of plutonium production came in 1989 when an employee left a faucet running. This caused chromic acid to be released into the sanitary water system. Another highlight came in 1989 when Department of Energy officers were served papers by FBI agents.

Perhaps the most ironic event to come out of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant's existence is that after environmental and restoration cleanup began in the early '90s, it was redesignated as the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site.

If you suspect a government weapons facility is harming you and your community, and are wondering if you have a claim, please contact an experienced injury lawyer in your area.

The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Tuesday that W.R. Grace & Company has agreed to pay a record $250 million to clean up past mining operations in Libby, Montana. The settlement results from asbestos poisoning claims that helped to drive the chemical company into bankruptcy.

History

W.R. Grace & Company began mining and processing vermiculite near Libby in 1963. The operation ended in 1990. Vermiculite is used in insulation and other building materials. The vermiculite in Montana was contaminated with asbestos. It has been proven that asbestos causes lung scarring, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that causes tumors in the chest and abdomen.

Cleanup in Libby has been ongoing since 2000, but the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001. The company was ordered to pay $54 million in investigative and environmental cleanup costs by a federal court in Montana in 2003, but has not paid due to the bankruptcy proceeding. W.R. Grace and seven senior employees were charged in 2005 with knowingly exposing residents and miners in Libby to asbestos. Over a thousand people have become ill or died as a result of asbestos exposure in Libby. The settlement will be used to clean homes, businesses, and schools exposed to carcinogenic asbestos dust.

Though large companies like W.R. Grace & Company help to employ people in places like Libby, Montana, they also have a responsibility to these employees' and their families' health. While mining is not high on the list of the safest jobs you can have, knowing the inherent dangers upfront is part of accepting this type of work. When a company poisons not just the land and their employees, but the families of these employees, the result should be settlements like the one the federal government handed down to W.R. Grace & Company. Though this is too little, too late for many of those affected, perhaps it will stand as yet another marker for those who put profits over people.

If you, or a loved one, have been exposed to a harmful chemical, please contact an injury lawyer with experience in toxic tort litigation.