Vinyl Siding Over Asbestos Shingles

vinyl siding over asbestos shingles

What is a Toxic Tort?

Unless you are a lawyer or involved with the law in some way, you probably don’t know what a toxic tort case is.  However, if you ever end up injured or struggling with a disease, toxic torts might just be your new best friend.  Simply put, a toxic tort case is a lawsuit where the injured party claims that exposure to a chemical is what caused their injury or disease.

These days it seems that chemicals are all around us: in our homes, at work, in the very air we breathe.  Many are not toxic and don’t affect us on a regular basis.  Others though, have the potential to ruin our lives.  Reflecting all the different ways we are exposed to chemicals, there are many types of toxic tort cases.  For instance, pharmaceutical toxic tort cases are usually brought by hundreds of people who all had the same adverse affects to a particular drug.  Occupational toxic torts can either be brought by many workers, or just a few that were chronically exposed to toxic chemicals.  The general population is exposed to many different chemicals in small amounts, but industrial workers are exposed to much higher quantities of a chemical, and thus are more likely to develop reactions or diseases.  Pesticides and mold are two more toxic substances that are regularly litigated.  Other toxic tort case examples include construction materials that contain poisonous substances like formaldehyde-treated carpet or wood.  Asbestos is another construction material that results in many toxic tort cases.  Asbestos can be found in drywall and joint compound, plaster, vinyl floor tiles, roofing tars, siding, and shingles, brake pads and shoes, stage curtains, pipe insulation, fireproof clothing for firefighters, and similar settings.

Pharmaceutical toxic tort cases are different from medical malpractice cases even though they are often litigated against doctors and drug manufacturers because the point of the case is that the drug is defective.  Medical malpractice cases state that the doctor was at fault.  Occupational toxic tort cases are brought against people other than the employer, so they are not the same as a worker’s compensation claim.  A toxic tort case where an individual has been injured due to property contamination is also different from property damage or simply property contamination cases.

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For more information about toxic tort cases, please visit http://www.toxictorts.com/

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