Personal Injury Archive

3 Alarming Asbestos Facts

October 20th, 2009. By AbiK

Do I sound alarmist? or more aptly, alarmed? I am. I was writing an article on Asbestos and Asbestos Mesothelioma—and the more I researched the more alarmed I became. If you’re like me, asbestos mesothelioma—while indeed an awful, deadly disease—seemed to be something that only shipyard workers, miners, construction workers and veterans had to fear. Or I associated it with legal ads that start out “Have you or a loved one….” But a little research yields some pretty alarming facts about asbestos—and it’s changed my opinion about who’s really affected by asbestos exposure into “this means YOU”. 

Asbestos Alarm 1: Asbestos is in more places than you think

A little tooling around the EPA site gave me the following:

The EPA estimates that there are asbestos containing materials in most of the nation’s approximately 107,000 primary and secondary schools and 733,000 public and commercial buildings.

Damaged ACM (asbestos-containing material) is more likely to release fibers than non-damaged ACM. In a 1984 survey, EPA found that approximately 66 percent of those buildings that contained asbestos contained damaged ACM.

With three young kids sitting (right now!) in a school building that was built between 1930 and 1950, when asbestos was widely in use, those two statements above are giving me pause. I understand that asbestos removal is not always the best course of action as it can create a problem where perhaps one did not exist—however, that second statement—the one indicating that approximately 66% of buildings with asbestos contain damaged asbestos—i.e., the kind Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Mesothelioma
Posted in Defective Products, Personal Injury | No Comments »

Man Bites Dog…Dog Awestruck

October 1st, 2009. By Hunter West

Be warned. This story has teeth. 

What would be your reaction when you see a much larger and stronger dog (and a breed that carries the perception of being vicious) attacking a smaller, meeker dog? 

A: Scream.

B: Call the SPCA, or the Police

C: Attempt to pull them apart and stop the attack

D: Nothing

For a man from Saskatoon, a city located in Western Canada, there needed to be one more letter to that stack noted above. 

E: Bite Dog.

As in, give him a piece of his own medicine. 

Doggonit, if it didn’t work too.

Here’s the story, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Early in September Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Dog Bite
Posted in Lex Levity, Personal Injury | 3 Comments »

KFC sued for doin’ Chicken half-right

September 29th, 2009. By AbiK

Kentucky Fried Chicken (which hopped on board the acronym branding bandwagon to be hip in the hood a few yeas back and so now is known as KFC) is the target of a lawsuit filed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) in California.

The issue, which has been in the courts for several years now with several fast food chains including Burger King and McDonald’s, centers on the presence of PhIP—a chemical byproduct of cooking meats at high temperatures.

According to a report on SFGate.com, PhIP was added to California’s list of carcinogens in 1994—and as such, it falls under California’s Proposition 65 which requires a business to warn customers if they are being exposed to a substance that can cause cancer or birth defects.

And that’s what’s at the heart of the current lawsuit against KFC—the warning, or lack thereof.

Lest you think that the PCRM is some small, CA-based enclave of lotus-pose-lovin’ quacks (I say that as a yoga practitioner so back off), it’s actually based out of Washington, DC and claims Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: KFC, PhIP
Posted in Emerging Issues, Personal Injury | 1 Comment »

Strange Bedfellows: Botched Facelift Victim and…SunTrust?

September 23rd, 2009. By AbiK

If you love a bit of irony, this one’s for you.

Betty Nestlehutt has found herself in the news spotlight lately. Betty’s a septagenarian out of Marietta, GA who underwent facelift surgery back in 2006—she’s a realtor and, according to reports, she had the facelift to be able to compete with younger real estate agents. The facelift didn’t go so well, and so sued for malpractice. But then a strange thing happened at court—she not only won, she won big: to the tune of over $1.2 million. Probably small solace for all she’d been through.

Regardless, she’s the center of attention again in 2009 because her case has become the center of a new case—the one in which her attorneys have asked the Georgia State Supreme Court to overturn a state law that caps damages in medical malpractice lawsuits at $350,000. (If you’re doing the math, yes, Betty’s settlement was greater than the $350k cap).

Now, here’s the irony. As any curious blogger would do, I went to check out Betty online. And I found her real estate site—she’s with Prudential. And as I’m scrolling…ta da!…there it is: a nice-sized display ad for SunTrust mortgages.

And I’m thinking of another set of septagenarians and beyond who allegedly found their SunTrust HELOC accounts frozen. And I’m wondering if Betty knew about that situation. And I’m just thinking of the irony…older real estate agent feels potential age discrimination in the marketplace, has botched facelift, sues, wins, displays advertising from company that allegedly, sorta kinda may have engaged in a bit of age discrimination…

God bless Betty and all she’s been through; and God help all those folks still waiting on answers from SunTrust…

Tags: Malpractice, SunTrust
Posted in Drugs/Medical, Financial, Personal Injury | No Comments »

Construction Workers and Asbestos Mesothelioma

September 21st, 2009. By LucyC

A new study out this month gives a whole new meaning to the term “Dirty Energy.” It turns out that construction workers who were employed at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hanford site back in the 1970s are dying at higher than normal rates of asbestos mesothelioma. 

The study, published this month in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine (Sept 2009), shows 94 of the 266 workers who had worked at the Hanford site had died of asbestos-related cancer. The study looked at data from the Building Trades National Medical Screening Program for Hanford, WA, and three additional Department of Energy sites. 

One of the authors of the study, Knut Ringen of Stoneturn Consultants in Seattle, told a Washington state newspaper, “The most significant finding at Hanford was a very high rate of mesothelioma.” And that was in addition to deaths from asbestosis, which was 30 times higher than that seen in the general population. According to the study, the workers were exposed to the asbestos between 20 and 30 years ago, and their average age at the time of volunteering for the study was roughly 60. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Mesothelioma
Posted in Personal Injury | 1 Comment »