Personal Injury Law Update

Watch Out for Toxic Toys

If you have children, undoubtedly you showered them with toys and other presents during the recent holiday season. However, make sure the toys you gave your kids are safe for them. According to a report released late last year by the Ecology Center, one of every three toys tested in a study of 1,500 popular children's toys contained potentially harmful levels of lead, arsenic, mercury and other dangerous chemicals.

The good news is that, on February 10, 2009, a new federal law -- the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act -- will set new limits on the amount of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead and other potentially unsafe chemicals allowed in children's products. Based on the limits in the law, and related safety standards, the Ecology Center generated a list of the year's most toxic toys, which includes toys with highest levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury or bromide. Some of the worst offenders are jewelry sets for young girls (for example, the Hannah Montana "2 Hearts and HM Graphic Necklace" contains a whopping 406,510 ppm of lead; for comparison's sake, the maximum level for lead under the new law will be 600 ppm).

Radon in Granite Countertops - Is There a Risk for Oregon and Washington Homeowners?

The popularity of granite countertops in kitchens has soared during the last decade — a tenfold increase, according to the Marble Institute of America, a trade group representing granite fabricators. Unfortunately, so have reports of granite countertops emitting radon and other radiation in excess of levels considered safe, according to a July 2008 story in The New York Times.

To be sure, health physicists and radiation experts agree that most granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low levels, and say these emissions are insignificant compared with so-called background radiation that is constantly raining down from outer space, seeping up from the earth’s crust, or emanating from manmade sources like X-rays, luminous watches and smoke detectors.

Nevertheless, according to The New York Times article, the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") has been receiving an increased number of calls from radon inspectors and concerned homeowners nationwide about granite countertops with radiation measurements several times above normal levels.

The EPA's website offers a helpful resource called A Citizen's Guide to Radon, which explains how radon can get into your home, how to test for radon, and what the test results mean.

To test your home, you can call a local laboratory that performs radon testing. The EPA recommends taking action if radon readings in your home exceed 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of radioactive emission), which is about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day.

The Oregon product liability lawyers at D'Amore & Associates represent consumers in class action lawsuits filed as a result of injury from environmental and toxic torts such as chemical spills, defective products, and pharmaceuticals, medical and other devices that cause injury.

W.R. Grace & Co. Reaches Tentative $2 Billion Settlement on Asbestos Claims

It was announced today that chemicals giant, W.R. Grace & Co., had reached a tentative $2 billion settlement on asbestos claims with a committee of asbestos personal injury claimants, a representative handling future claims and a committee of Grace stockholders. The settlement should clear the way for Grace to emerge from its bankruptcy reorganization case. The settlement will be a centerpiece of Grace's reorganization plan, which must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Judith Fitzgerald in Pittsburgh.

New York Lead Paint Case Settles for $12.75 Million

The New York Daily News reported Tuesday that a Brooklyn, New York family whose 19 children suffered lead poisoning while living in city-subsidized housing will receive more than $12 million in what officials say is the largest lead paint personal injury settlement in state history.  The litigation was commenced in 1995 and involved over 6,000 pages of testimony before settling.