Toxic Injury

October 16, 2009

Home Insurers Discontinuing Chinese Drywall Policies

The Ivory family’s dreams of a relaxing retirement on Florida’s Gulf Coast were put on hold when they discovered their new home had been built with Chinese drywall that emits sulfuric fumes and corrodes pipes. It got worse when they asked their insurer for help — and not only was their claim denied, but they’ve been told their entire policy won’t be renewed.

Thousands of homeowners nationwide who bought new houses constructed from the defective building materials are finding that insurers drop policies or send notices of non-renewal based on the presence of the Chinese drywall.

October 9, 2009

30 W.Va. National Guardsmen sue KBR over alleged chemicals exposure

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Thirty members of the West Virginia National Guard filed a lawsuit in Marshall County Circuit Court, WVA, alleging that they were negligently exposed to a highly toxic chemical as they guarded a rebuilding project in Iraq in 2003.

The lawsuit contends that members of the Moundsville-based 1092nd Engineer Battalion of the West Virginia National Guard were deployed to the Qarmat Ali water plant near Basra from April to June 2003. The soldiers guarded the facility while KBR Inc. contractors repaired the plant.

October 8, 2009

RI Orders Texas-based Southern Union to Pay $18 M in Mercury Storage Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Southern Union gas company was ordered to pay $18 million for illegally storing mercury waste, which was exposed to the public five years ago when vandals stole the hazardous liquid from a rundown building and spilled it at an apartment complex.

U.S. District Judge fined the Texas company $6 million and ordered an additional $12 million in payments to the community, saying it had committed a “serious crime” by storing liquid mercury at a neglected building in Pawtucket without the required permit.

“It must be enough to get the attention of other companies who might be doing the same thing,” the judge said of his penalty.

October 1, 2009

Dallas Texas Asbestos Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Asbestos lawsuits are filed by plaintiffs who have suffered as the result of asbestos-related illness. Plaintiffs in asbestos lawsuits can include the victims of asbestos exposure, or their families or loved ones. Defendants against asbestos lawsuits are those parties considered responsible for the asbestos exposure. In the past, targets of asbestos lawsuits have included:

* Employers
* Asbestos manufacturers
* Asbestos installers
* Landlords
* Leasing agents

September 26, 2009

Missouri Hog Lawsuits and Toxic Environmental Pollution

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A faint rotten-egg smell drifts off a covered lagoon a hundred yards from a well-traveled Missouri gravel road.

This is battleground — ground zero in what some see as a high-stakes fight for the future of Missouri agriculture.

But in Kansas City law offices 80 miles away, combatants prepare for another showdown over the smells drifting from this 80,000-head hog operation.

Is the stench an obnoxious affront to neighbors or simply the “odor of agriculture” that comes with life in the country?

September 25, 2009

Overuse of Denture Cream with Zinc Leads to Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

When he began getting weak, 61-year-old Ronald Beaver figured he might just be feeling his age. Eventually his problem was traced to a serious blood disorder caused by low levels of copper.

It wasn’t until several weeks later — after the man from Tamarac, Fla., started getting daily doses of copper — that Beaver’s doctor mentioned that getting too much zinc can trigger loss of copper.

The only source of that much zinc they surmised was the tubes of PoliGrip denture cream he had been overusing for a decade.

September 24, 2009

Oklahoma to File Lawsuit Against Big Poultry

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Oklahoma brought a pollution lawsuit in 2005 against the Arkansas poultry industry, suggesting the threat of legal action may have spurred the companies to do better at policing themselves.

”The water quality is getting better, and this year, especially, we had very little algae,” said Archie ”Trey” Peyton III, 35, a former environmental consultant.

”There’s got to be a reason for that, which to me it follows that the last two years that most of the poultry litter in this region has been trucked out. But it looks to me like that’s making an impact on the river,” Peyton said.

But Oklahoma says the industry needs to do more, and its closely watched case against 11 companies — including food giants Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc. — goes to trial Thursday.

It’s been a long-standing practice among poultry farmers in the Illinois River watershed to spread their chickens’ droppings on their fields. But as big business took over the production of broilers, the amount of waste being spread on local fields ballooned — to an estimated 345,000 tons annually in recent years, according to Oklahoma.

September 21, 2009

Dioxin levels high in Vietnam near US base

by Dr. Shezad Malik

New environmental tests confirm extremely high levels of dioxin, the toxic ingredient of Agent Orange, in people, fish and soil near a former U.S. air base where American troops stored the herbicide during the Vietnam War.

“Time is of the essence” to finish cleaning up the site, now home to the Danang airport, where dioxin levels in the soil, sediment and fish were 300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted levels, the survey by the Canadian environmental firm Hatfield Consultants said.

The survey also found that temporary containment measures jointly implemented by the U.S. and Vietnam in 2007 have apparently resulted in lower dioxin levels in people who live near the site.

September 17, 2009

Testing for Toxics at Schools Sparks Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

ACROSS THE NATION: Controversies brew over possible toxic emissions
Almost a year after tests by USA TODAY found significant levels of two potentially toxic metals in the air outside the school, local health officials expanded their own monitoring efforts here. The reason: Air samples taken by the county earlier this year showed even higher levels of the metals than what USA TODAY found — on two days, at least nine times more.

Highlands, flanked by two metals plants, is among scores of schools where regulators — local, state or federal — are monitoring outdoor air for toxic chemicals, many that pose unique dangers to kids. The monitoring is not required by law but came in response to the USA TODAY investigation that identified hundreds of schools where chemicals from nearby industries may permeate the air.

September 13, 2009

Merck Lawsuit Over Fosamax ends in Mistrial

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A lawsuit alleging that Merck & Co’s osteoporosis drug Fosamax caused jaw damage ended in a mistrial on Friday .

U.S. District Judge John Keenan declared the mistrial two days giving the New York jury considering the case a “cooling off period” in light of supposed acrimony among jurors.

A Merck lawyer on Wednesday referred to an “unsubstantiated claim” of a chair being thrown in the jury room.

Merck faces lawsuits involving almost 900 cases by patients who say the use of Fosamax causes osteonecrosis of the jaw, or the death of jawbone tissue. The trial is Merck’s first over the drug