Toxic exposure is when something that’s toxic gets into your body, and it’s when the body is in contact with said toxic item.
Some examples of toxic exposure include:
- Chemicals in the workplace
- Black mold and other dangerous molds
- Asbestos
- Lead paint
- Toxic fumes during activities including welding and other activities
- Contamination in the form of gases and toxins
- Soil and groundwater contamination because of chemical and waste dumping.
If this happens, you may be liable for legal action in the form of toxic torts.
What’s Toxic Torts
These are personal injury situations that are when the plaintiff harms someone because of the exposure to toxic chemicals. The factors that determine this do vary.
First, you need to prove that the defendant owed legal duty to protect the people, such as knowing not to contaminate the groundwater by dumping chemicals into there.
They must also prove the breach of legal duty, where they broke the legal factors associated with that situation. For example, they must prove that the company should’ve exercised care to prevent the exposure of the toxic chemical being dumped in certain areas.
The plaintiff must also prove that this caused direct harm to the person. For example, if there is a property that has toxic chemicals, the owner of it may claim the builder is responsible since they didn’t properly maintain or inspect the property at hand.
With toxic torts as well, you must also prove that you did actually suffer harm because of this. Medical bills, missed work, and other such issues must be done to prove this as well.
You must have all of this at hand, and it’s important to ensure that you do so before taking legal action.
Other Causes Of Action
Personal injury suits aren’t the only way for those who experienced toxic exposure can get compensation back. For example, if the work injuries aren’t handled through personal injury lawsuits even fi the lawyer is responsible.
Instead, this can be handled through workers compensation which every state has in place, and it’s usually the best remedy for injuries that happen while working.
However, if the person who was working was hurt by chemicals for example asbestos, this may be blamed on a third party instead, and the employee might be able to bring claims against the person who made the substance in a civil suit, and cases that have drugs or medications involved might utilize product liability than toxic tort instead.
Class Action Lawsuits
This is used when toxic substances affect a large group of people, and instead, this is a collective suit rather than just a singular instance.
Class action lawsuits happen through all the people who suffered similar injuries, or maybe the same injuries that can be blamed on the defendant.
Is there a Statute of Limitations
There is a statute of limitations, and usually it’s 2-3 years after the problem occurred, but it can be shorter in a few cases.
For toxic exposure, this can be a bit more complex, since the injury may not show up until years after the fact. But of course, states do have discovery rules to help with this problem. This essentially means the statute of limitations isn’t in place until the injury is reasonably or should’ve known, and is then discovered by the plaintiff.
Regardless, if you do believe you were affected by a toxic tort, you should contact a personal injury attorney right away to help with dealing with this kind of case to get the compensation for the injury you deserve.