Jacksonville Personal Injury Blog

Homeowners in the rural Palm Beach County community known as The Acreage have filed a federal lawsuit charging that defense contractor, Pratt & Whitney, is responsible for the pollution that has caused a cancer cluster in the neighborhood. This is a class-action lawsuit on behalf of about 10,000 homeowners and is the first filed to try and get to the bottom of the issue since the Department of Health has been slow to recognize and identify the problem.

Finally, health officials in Florida finally admitted that The Acreage has an elevated number of brain cancers among children and teens living in The Acreage. The state still doesn’t have a cause, though it says it’s been investigating since last summer. This has also done nothing for property value.

Beginning in the 1950s, Pratt & Whitney handled and stored chemicals including PCBs, which cause cancer, and there was leakage from the site along Beeline Highway. The company says it has not harmed the public health and that there has been “little to no migration of groundwater impact off our site.”

13 families have had children or teens with brain cancers of cancer of the central nervous system over the 1994 to 2008 time period. While the state has tested well water and found it “generally good,” Pratt & Whitney is just too close for comfort and has been the subject of a state monitored cleanup for nearly 20 years. There are at least 24 contaminants still allegedly on the property.

Source article: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/homeowners-suit-blames-pratt-whitney-for-acreage-cancer-227266.html

Posted by Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Class Action

Bookmark:

This news comes from the highly credible nonprofit organization, The Environmental Working Group (EWG).

EWG finds there are over 300 pollutants in U.S. tap water. After analyzing almost 20 million records, EWG finds that more than half of those chemicals are not even subject to health or safety regulations. That means they can legally be there in any amount, regardless of their safety. Sometimes it takes a nonprofit to do the work that our federal government should be doing. For example, no new regulations for drinking water standards have been established for the last eight years.

For those chemicals that are regulated, 49 have been found at levels above the guidelines, meaning that tap water is polluted for more than 3 million Americans.

EWG is encouraging the government to do a national assessment of drinking water quality and set new safety standards.

So how did Jacksonville fare? How about 91 out of 100? JEA serves 800,000 in Jacksonville and the quality of the water is overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection. Over the legal limit are 12 chemicals, Total trihalomethanes or TTHMs, among them and 23 contaminants were detected, many of them agricultural pollutants.

See the report here: http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/whatsinyourwater/FL/JEA/2161328/

Continue reading "Jacksonville Water Among the Worst, Says Environmental Group" »

Posted by Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Class Action , Health & Information , Personal Injury

Bookmark:

Environmental crusader, Erin Brockovich was in Florida this week to meet with residents and health officials and to host a Town Hall meeting Thursday night to talk about the cancer cluster at the South Florida community known as The Acreage.

Brockovich was played by actress, Julia Roberts in a film about her efforts in uncovering toxic water pollution in California.

These days she has formed a company that investigates corporate wrongdoers and advocates for the truth.

She and a New York City law firm are investigating environmental links to brain cancer cases at The Acreage neighborhood in Palm Beach County and offered residents information and options for legal action.

The cause of the suspected cancer cluster remains a mystery. In the rural suburb of West Palm Beach, the state and county have launched a Level II investigation after the first one found an increased rate of total cancers from 2000 to 2007. Girls in particular, had an increased number of brain cancers with The Acreage reporting 1,369 cases of all types of cancer between 1995 and 2007.

So far, the state has found elevated levels of radiation at ten homes that also have residents with brain tumors or cancer.

The state DEP has found four private wells with drinking water that failed to meet state standards for safety because of elevated levels of radium, a measure of radiation. Some residents have blamed heavy pesticide use on orange groves. Pratt & Whitney, the rocket and jet engine company worked nearby on Beeline Highway and is responsible for leaks and spills on its 7,000 acres dating back 30 years.

In the 1980s the company had its own on-site cancer scare. Some Acreage residents believe contaminant leaks into their wells might have contributed to their brain tumor cases.

Continue reading "Erin Brockovich Investigates Florida Toxic Waste" »

Posted by Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Class Action , Environmental Litigation , Health & Information , Personal Injury

Bookmark:

Two years ago, one 10 year old girl, was doing well in school and at home, but she had one reoccurring problem. She kept having strep throat. Her mother and doctor couldn’t figure out what was going on until the girl had to give up her bedroom to guests for a week. Her strep throat went away.

According to an article, turns out she didn’t use her dental rinse during that time. Agent Cool Blue Listerine is geared toward children and shows up a blue color when plaque is left behind. It’s supposed to encourage brushing. Instead it is encouraging a lawsuit.

This girl is now at the head of what may turn out to be a class action product liability lawsuit. Listerine, made by a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, admitted to consumers that four different types of bacteria were found in the formulation two years ago. The four contaminants were: pseudomonas flurorescens; klebsiella oxytoca; serratia marcescens; enterobactar cloacae; all bacteria that grew in the absence of any preservative.

About 200 potential plaintiffs have joined the product liability lawsuit complaining of the same symptoms, repeated strep throat, high temperature, extremely large sores in their mouths, and cracking of permanent molars.

The company immediately reformulated the product and added a preservative.

But that may not have done the trick.

Continue reading "West Palm Listerine Product Liability" »

Posted by Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Class Action , Health & Information , Personal Injury , Product Liability

Bookmark: