Toxic Chemical Exposure & Birth Defects

$4,250,000
Case Details: On the eve of trial for a five-year old child who suffered severe brain injury as a result of being exposed to methanol fumes and gallium arsenide dust during pregnancy. Extremely difficult case to prove exposure and dose sufficient to cause birth defects. Plaintiff's mother worked for a company that received numerous citations from OSHA in the year 2000 and discovery established that company health officials did all that they could to conduct workplace testing to minimize reported exposures. Company officials operated such a dirty facility that it was necessary to dismantle the facility and ship it to China because of the inability to operate in Alameda County. Surprisingly in 2003 during the dismantling, the company was cited again for not protecting workers from exposure to arsenide dust found in the dismantling of the cafeteria ventilation system. A condition of settlement was that the company would not be revealed with regard to this settlement. American International Group paid the recovery, except as the Court will approve. For details please see Dangerous Chemicals at Work Caused Birth Defects.
John Doe, a minor v. Manufacturing Company, Alameda County Superior Court

Recovery Amount: Confidential
Case Details: Wrongful death of a 40 year old man who died of leukemia after having been exposed to Woodlife from 1971-72 while employed by Simpson Lumber Company in Arcata, California. In an investigation of three other leukemia cases at the Simpson mill by the State Department of Health, Simpson concealed from officials that for years it had used wood preservatives with pentachlorophenol.
Skaggs v. Champion International, Humboldt County Superior Court No. DR 85488

All recoveries remain confidential.
Case Details: Served as lead counsel in three additional pentachlorophenol caused wrongful death recoveries for former Simpson employees.
Gordon v. U. S. Plywood-Champion P v. U. S. Plywood-Champion Papers, Humboldt County Superior Court No. 92 DR 0378 Freeman v. U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers, Humboldt County Superior Court No. 93 DR 0275

$15.5 million
Case Details: Class action case for victims of the pollution of the Sacramento River when a 19,000 gallon tank car derailed at the Cantara Loop spilling metam sodium and releasing methyl isothiocyanate, impacting residents of the Dunsmuir and Lake Shasta area.
San Francisco Superior Court, Sacramento River Spill Litigation, Judicial Council Coordination Nos. 2617 and 2620

$180.0 million
Case Details: Class action case involving 63,000 Californians who were exposed to 12 tons of oleum in the atmosphere when a tank car of oleum, concentrated sulfuric acid and sulfuric trioxide exploded at a sulfuric acid manufacturing plant operated by General Chemical Company in Richmond, California. General Chemical was the sole provider of sulfuric acid to Chevron's Northern California gasoline refinery.
GCC Richmond Works Case, Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding No. 2906, Contra Costa County Superior Court, Martinez, California

$750,000
Case Details: Wrongful death of a 38 year old high school teacher who was employed by Chevron at its pesticide bottling plant in California during the early 1970s and was exposed to Weed-B-Gon. The main ingredients of this pesticide during the early 1970s were 2,4 D and 2,4,5 TP. A search of local homes produced twenty year old cans of Weed-B-Gon that when tested proved to be contaminated with dioxins and furans. Mr. Pickering died of a soft-tissue sarcoma which has been identified in medical literature as being associated with the contaminants found in this common household pesticide.
Pickering v. Chevron Chemical Company and Dow Chemical Company, San Francisco Superior Court Action Nos. 938467 and 952025

$2,000,000
Case Details: Forty two families in Sutter Creek, California learned their homes were built on land contaminated with mine tailings containing arsenic, resulting in stigmatized property values at the EPA Superfund remediated site. After an individual inspection of each property, a market study and appraisal by an MAI certified appraiser showed that homeowners had suffered an estimated diminution in value of approximately 25%. Total diminution in value was approximately $2,000,000.
Loux et al v. AlliedSignal, et al, Amador County Superior Court

Recovery Amount: Confidential
Case Details: Wrongful death of a 44 year old man who died of brain cancer after having worked for 20 years as a "deco operator," a printer supervising the presses that printed soft drink and beer cans, at Reynolds Metals Company in Hayward, CA. The printing inks contain formaldehyde and azo pigments, and the catalysts in the inks, when heated or exposed to formaldehyde create nitrosamines, causing brain cancer. Although the ink companies knew the conditions under which their inks were being used, they never tested their coatings, which would have confirmed that nitrosamines are generated in the printing process.
Alexander v. Ashland, et al, Alameda County Superior Court

$1.8 million
Case Details: A mother was exposed to toxic solvents at work while she was pregnant, which resulted in brain damage to her child. The defendant was a subsidiary of a nationally recognized chemical manufacturer.

Recovery Amount: Confidential
Case Details: A young father died of leukemia after long-term exposure to spray glues in the manufacture of doors.

Recovery Amount: Confidential
Case Details: A child suffered cancer living next door to an electronics manufacturing plant in Silicon Valley.

Recovery Amount: Confidential
Case Details: Five confidential recoveries for one survivor of brain cancer and four families of British Petroleum Amoco laboratory researchers who died from brain cancer. All worked at Amoco's Naperville, Illinois research center's Building 503 on the third floor during the late 1970s and early 1980s. All were white, male, long-term employees of Amoco, averaging 17 years in tenure, compared with the average of nine years among Naperville employees altogether. Researchers from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and Johns Hopkins University concluded that six cancer cases were more likely than not workplace related and constituted a valid brain cancer cluster. In this case the six glioma victims were frequent users of a chemical called n-hexane which was used to make plastics and were more frequently involved in a process involving ionizing radiation used to track compounds in chemical reactions.
Article: BP Amoco settles brain cancer suits, March 14, 2000