Reasons Why Asbestos Regulations are Important
EPA estimates that asbestos fibers contribute to 7,500 deaths per year in the United States. Most uses of asbestos have been banned since asbestos was found to cause lung cancer and other respiratory diseases in humans. However, it is estimated that 30 million tons of asbestos were used in thousands of building products since the late 1800s. Asbestos-containing building materials are commonly found in buildings constructed prior to the mid-1970s. The asbestos regulations currently in place are necessary to ensure that people are not exposed to airborne asbestos fibers when buildings are remodeled or demolished.
What are the statutes and regulations and to whom do they apply?
The regulations apply to remodeling or demolition projects which occur in public or commercial buildings. Private residences and apartment buildings with four or fewer dwellings are exempt from the regulations. Any project which is subject to these regulations requires a notification to the department within 10 working days prior to the start of the project.
Respondent Fibreboard Corporation, an asbestos manufacturer, was locked in litigation for decades. Plaintiffs filed a stream of personal injury claims against it, swelling throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s to thousands of claims for compensatory damages each year. Fibreboard engaged in litigation with its insurers, respondent Continental Casualty Company and respondent Pacific Indemnity Company, over insurance coverage for the personal injury claims. In 1990, a California trial court ruled against Continental and Pacific, and the insurers appealed. At around the same time, Fibreboard approached a group of asbestos plaintiffs’ lawyers, offering to discuss a “global settlement” of Fibreboard’s asbestos liability. Negotiations at one point led to the settlement of some 45,000 pending claims, and the parties eventually agreed upon $1.535 billion as the key term of a “Global Settlement Agreement.” Of this sum, $1.525 billion would come from Continental and Pacific, which had joined the negotiations, while Fibreboard would contribute $10 million, all but $500,000 of it from other insurance proceeds. At plaintiffs’ counsels’ insistence, Fibreboard and its insurers then reached a backup settlement of the coverage dispute in the “Trilateral Settlement Agreement,” under which the insurers agreed to provide Fibreboard with $2 billion to defend against asbestos claimants and pay the winners, should the Global Settlement Agreement fail to win court approval. Subsequently, a group of named plaintiffs filed the present action in Federal District Court, seeking certification for settlement purposes of a mandatory class that
For 20 years, in Woburn, Massachusetts, there were more than dozens of cases of childhood leukemia due to contamination of the local wells. This contamination was brought by companies and their chemical waste dumping. The families had children dying and few surviving, therefore they pursued legal help. After hiring a lawyer, the case becomes viral over the duration of the settlement. The struggle between the companies, the lawyer, and the families increased over time but soon saw a solution.
In this assignment I am going to describe three different Health and Safety legislations that promote the safety of individuals within a health and social care setting.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established simple straight forward instructions on how to handle Asbestos, for the purpose of protecting the general public’s
Tort reformers believe that courts must reduce the ability of defendants’ liability in order to avoid economic decline. In the years to come, the proposals likely to generate the biggest dispute include malpractice and class-action reform, limits on noneconomic and punitive damages, and a legislative solution to asbestos legation (Rushmann, 2006). There are many lawsuits. But the frivolous lawsuits should not be taken seriously and not cost our courts and citizens time and/or money.
The first thing to address is the fact that the proposed construction site is located within an area that does not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The environmental protection agency has declared the area a nonattainment area. The EPA defines nonattainment as “any area that does not meet (or that contributes to ambient air quality in a nearby area that does not meet) the national primary or secondary ambient air quality standard for the pollutant.” (Environmental Protection Agency, 2011) Since the proposed area is classified a nonattainment area special considerations must occur in order for project approval.
For 34 years, Bruce Petito, a partner at Petito & Petito has successfully handled hundreds of personal injury cases, ensuring these injured victims receive the compensation and help they deserve, some of these cases had $500,000 or more awarded. He also has a 17 year history of representing insurance companies as a trial counsel. This unique perspective gives him an edge when it comes to knowing what an insurance
George Corson was a railroad machinist who worked at Railroad Friction Corp most of his life. Mr. Corson then died of malignant mesothelioma. The only identified cause of his death is the exposure to asbestos. This was alleged to be present in the locomotive boilers and brake shoes he worked with. Mr. Corson’s widow and daughter then sued the manufacturers of those products. The manufacturers, however, argued that the plaintiffs’ state-law wrongful act claims were preempted by the federal railroad safety laws (Kurns v Railroad Products, 2011).
Tort reform is very controversial issue. From the plaintiff’s perspective, tort reforms seems to take liability away from places such as insurance companies and hospitals which could at times leave the plaintiff without defense. From the defendant’s perspective, tort reform provides a defense from extremely large punitive damage awards. There seems to be no median between the two. Neither side will be satisfied. With the help of affiliations such as the American Tort Reform Association and Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, many businesses and corporations are working to change the current tort system to stop these high cash awards.
What Is Tort Reform, Anyway? A User-Friendly Guide. 31 Oct. 2003. Web. 28 May 2010. .
The collapse of the World Trade Center caused a toxic dust cloud that covered parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Several of these toxins can cause alterations in the cell that may eventually cause lung cancer including the toxins explained in this paper. Each of these three chemicals are known to cause lung cancer through aerosol exposure. The concentration of the chemicals and the length of the exposure of these chemicals affect the risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer. As stated previously, several of these toxins had exposures over the regulation limit from the collapse of the World Trade Center. There are few studies on the effects of the World Trade Center dust because of how relatively recent this event occurred. Since lung cancer is
In this essay about tort law, I talked about a tort case that has personally impacted me. To do this, I provided a background of the event, applied facts of the case to applicable law, summarized lessons of the week as they related to this case and provided a plausible argument for the parties involved. This is a prime example of breach of a tort law and the case is currently in the process of litigation. It is likely that the parties involved will reach an agreement out of court but may in fact be brought to trial.
...ntity. The FTC is requiring the company to send in annual filing to the FTC and to pay $200,000 as part of the settlement.
William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner. The Economic Structure of Tort Law. Harvard University Press, 1987.
...emical companies that helped produce Agent Orange. Yannacone filed a class action lawsuit for Reutershans case against six chemical companies that helped produce Agent Orange. The case grew as lawyers across America started representing more people affected by Dioxin. The case ended up in Jack Weinstein’s court at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. The night before the trial Weinstein tried to come up with a settlement option. Weinstein thought the chemical companies had a weak defense and could not see the jury siding with them. Weinstein thought the chemical companies had a weak defense and could not see the jury siding with them. The companies agreed with a settlement as long as they did not have to own up to it. Now that closer was brought to this case, those looking for compensation received it and the talk of Agent Orange died down.
From the 1990s, the reports that cover the compensation cases increased dramatically in the mass media (Almond, 2004). There is a view that a huge number of tort cases in the ‘compensation culture’ are unjustified and unfair. In the mid-1990s, the term ‘compensation culture’ first appeared in a famous British newspaper (Levin, 1993). Actually, this is an extreme view, which will be criticized in this paper. This essay emphasizes the compensation culture is a myth (Morris, 2007). There are three reasons: Firstly, the data of the tort claims declined in recent years. Secondly, some victims do not receive the compensation or enough compensation that they deserve. Thirdly, the mass media and public organizations created the ‘compensation