In Gibbstown, N.J., local contractor Lovett Contracting is facing legal action and potentially stiff fines from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a result of the alleged improper clean-up and removal of asbestos-containing materials used in a former DuPont Chemical gunpowder plant. The lawsuit alleges Lovett was in violation of the federal Clean Air Act and the National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants regarding asbestos. The EPA is seeking $32,000 per day and per violation as well as court costs, which can ultimately amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars of violations for the contractor.

According to The Gloucester County Times, the EPA allegations listed six violations, including failure to take required precautions in demolishing or removing about 5,000 feet of piping and 3,000 feet of pipe insulation with dangerous amounts of asbestos that could be exposed to the air. Once airborne, the asbestos becomes a hazard to employees and the local community alike.

While the contractor had no comment to local media, EPA spokesman Elias Rodriguez said, “Asbestos is a known carcinogen, and inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause serious health risks.” He noted, “Using water and equipment such as glove bags and other containment measures prevents the release of asbestos fibers and minimizes the chance of exposure.”

However, high government penalties will not save the lives currently in peril because of this added risk of developing asbestos-related cancers. All these fines can do is punish the offenders. They can not take away the pain, suffering and struggle manymesothelioma and asbestosis victims face on a regular basis. Workers are regularly put at risk during these massive asbestos clean-up projects, with little upfront protection.

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Asbestos

An AP investigation found that the federal government has known for at least three years that the wood piles contained asbestos, but they did not know the level of contamination.  EPA documents show that in 2007, 20 samples were taken from the pile, four of which showed potentially dangerous asbestos fibers.  The piles came from a now-defunct timber mill that took thousands of trees from a forest affected by asbestos from a nearby mine.

The potential for more contamination has frayed nerves in the town of 3,000 people and further eroded confidence in the government to clean up the mess. Resident Lerah Parker, who has spread truckloads of the material around her property, worries, “We thought we were coming to an end and now we have this issue all over again.” Residents are justified to feel concerned about the public health of their town.  Asbestos is one of the only causes of mesothelioma and, unfortunately, themesothelioma life expectancy can be grim.

Residents aren’t the only ones scrambling at this time. The EPA is now trying to gauge the public health risk and is preparing to issue guidelines about how residents should handle the wood, including warnings not to move or work with the material when it’s dry to avoid stirring up asbestos.  But the agency has decided it won’t track down where the chips went, saying it no longer has jurisdiction because the material is now classified as a commercial product.

Libby has fought an uphill battle against asbestos for many years.  This is not a resting point.  They must continue leading the fight for an asbestos-free country.

Asbestos

Using a “hacked” Kindle eBook reader, six large buttons taken from a V.Reader childrens’ eBook device, a few planks of wood, and an array of wiring and circuitry, Glenn from Santa Cruz, California, was able tofashion together a device for his sister, who suffered the birth injury and now has difficulty with basic motor functions.

In order to accommodate her limited motor functions, the larger buttons from the V.Reader are rewired to perform the basic commands on the Kindle and allow her to read books. Everything is connected through a series of circuits that are housed behind the Kindle in wood casing.

Glenn currently has assigned functions to all six of the V.Reader buttons. He added in a YouTube video that he was thinking of adding new function buttons during “later revisions” to the device in the future.

While Glenn only made the device for his sister and makes no mention of producing more versions of it, his story does show the great lengths that some families must go to in order to make life easier for loved ones suffering from cerebral palsy.

If you would like to pursue a potential birth injury lawsuit in order to receive a financial settlement that could fund medical costs for your loved one, contact a cerebral palsy lawyer at Sokolove Law today to learn about your legal options.

Birth Injury

According to Boston.com, Danielle and John Bellerose brought the lawsuit against the medical team that tended to the birth of their daughter Katherine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on June 13, 2004. Katherine was born two months premature and quickly began experiencing health problems and was put in neonatal intensive care.

However, as Katherine’s condition worsened, the team allegedly took too long to diagnose that her bowels had become perforated.

Following an unsuccessful surgery to prevent her intestinal tissues from failing, Katherine passed away on June 21, 2004.

In the lawsuit from the Bellerose family that followed, jurors found that Dr. Janet Lloyd and nurse practitioner Michele Ambrosino were negligent in their care for Katherine and did not treat her appropriately. Jurors awarded Danielle and John $3.5 million each, as well as $50,000 for suffering Katherine experienced before her death.

“By all accounts [Katherine] should have progressed on just like her sister and should have gone on to live a normal life,” said William Thompson, the Bellerose’s attorney. “She lived eight days.”

If you or a loved one have given birth to a child that suffered birth complications that either led to death or permanent injury, there may be legal options worth pursuing. Contact a birth injury attorney at Sokolove Law today to learn more about what types of lawsuit you may be able to bring against the doctors that caused the birth injury.

Birth Injury

Law360 (subscription required) reports the FDA is being sued for allegedly violating the Freedom of Information Act by failing to fulfill requests for records pertaining to a case against GlaxoSmithKline PLC and other drug companies. The underlying birth injury lawsuit alleges GlaxoSmithKline and other defendants withheld evidence proving that the morning sickness drug caused birth defects. The complaint, filed on behalf of 13 people who were born with severe birth defects, also claims thalidomide was distributed to more than 20,000 people by Smith Kline & French (the predecessor GlaxoSmithKline) despite the fact that the drug never received FDA approval.

If you or a loved one have been affected by medical negligence during the birth of a child, you may want to speak to a birth injury attorney about filing a birth injury lawsuit.

Birth Defects

Thankfully, a pair of new films are attempting to raise awareness regarding the dangers of the asbestos industry and the legal options that individuals have to punish the companies that have harmed them.  The films are already gaining a great deal of attention across the country.

In an attempt to raise awareness regarding the horrors of asbestos, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) announced last month that it would be hosting an international livestreaming of the film Breathless on its website on September 26 at 6:30 pm EST. The film, which was directed by Canadian filmmaker Kathleen Mullen, details the death of Mullens’ father that was caused by asbestos exposure in Canadian mines while also addressing the controversy surrounding the Canadian asbestos industry.

“ADAO is thrilled to be able to bring this critical issue to the forefront through the incredible film, Breathtaking. It is through the new avenues of digital technology and social media that we are seeing awareness about asbestos hazards expand rapidly around the globe,” said ADAO Co-Founder Linda Reinstein.

The film will precede a fifteen-minute question and answer session via Twitter with Mullen and Reinstein.

Another film, Hot Coffee, recently premiered on HBO as part of the network’s Summer Documentary Series. The movie looks at American civil justice and tells the story of Stella Liebeck, an elderly woman who sued McDonald’s for money to cover medical costs after the restaurant’s coffee severely burned her. Despite the uproar over the product liability lawsuit filed by Lieback, the film supports the legal action she took.

Many mesothelioma support groups have come out in support of the film, asmesothelioma lawsuits are similar in many ways to the case filed by Liebeck and have come under fire in recent years as well.

Hopefully Breathtaking and Hot Coffee will both help to increase the public’s awareness regarding asbestos and mesothelioma lawsuits.

If you or a loved one has been exposed to asbestos by using certain products or working for certain companies and have subsequently been diagnosed with mesothelioma, there may be legal options worth pursuing to obtain a mesothelioma settlement. Contact a mesothelioma attorney if you have any questions about the details of asbestos law and what is needed to pursue a settlement from the manufacturer of the asbestos product.

Asbestos

The Palm Beach Post reported that Ana Mejia and Rodolfo Santana were awarded the money – half of the $9 million they were originally seeking – to help fund a life plan for their son, Bryan, so he could live a comfortable life for an estimated 70 years. The $9 million plan maps out costs for prosthetics, wheelchairs, medical care, and assisted living needs over that time span.

“Ana and Rodolfo Santana know their mental anguish and their emotions are not important,” said Robert Bergin, the couple’s attorney. “The only thing that will help make up for their mental anguish is to know Bryan’s life plan is fully funded.”

The jury ruled in the couple’s favor after deciding that sonograms taken prior to Bryan’s birth were read incorrectly by doctors and technicians and failed to pick up his disabilities. The couple stated during the trial they would have terminated the pregnancy had they known about Bryan’s disabilities.

While Bryan’s situation is an unfortunate one, it is good to know that thisbirth injury lawsuit will help him pay for any medical costs he needs throughout his life.

If you or a loved one has given birth to a child that now suffers from a birth injury caused by a doctor’s negligence, it may be possible to pursue a birth injury lawsuit. Contact a birth injury lawyer at Sokolove Law today to learn more about your legal options.

Birth Injury

Birth Injury

The 32-year-old Faircloth, a resident of North Carolina, was born withcerebral palsy that affected his arms and legs and had doctors fearing that he would never be able to walk or talk. However, using various treatments and contraptions to exercise his muscles while also feeding his love of playing golf, Faircloth was able to develop his skills and become a scratch golfer.

The development of his golf skills culminated in his recent qualification for the Disabled British Open, which will take place August 15 in England. He is the first American to ever qualify for the event.

Karl Thurber, a golf pro at the country club that Faircloth plays at, said that while Fairchild could use his disabilities as an excuse for any shortcomings, he never has done so.

“Jason has always gone about his merry way as if he has no handicap,” Thurber said. “And he wants to make a difference in his life and in others’ lives. Sometimes people will use convenient excuses for their failures or inadequacies. Jason refuses to do that, not just in golf but in life. He faces the world.”

Jason Faircloth’s story is an inspirational one for any family who has a child dealing with a birth injury such as cerebral palsy. We wish him nothing but the best of luck in the tournament. If you or a loved one have a child who was born with cerebral palsy or other types of birth injury, there may be legal action worth pursuing. Contact Sokolove Law today and speak with one of our experienced birth injury attorneys.

Cerebral Palsy

Everyone has a strong opinion about cell phones. Many people complain that the cell phone is an annoyance, but then claim they couldn’t live without one. The cell phone is not just a more portable version of our traditional wired telephone. It is a small, portable technology that allows us to make phone calls and participate in a wide range of media interactions anywhere, anytime (as long as we’re in range of a cell tower). It is actually remarkable that in a period of about ten years, cell phones have become a “must-have” technology for many, despite the often-poor reception quality or unreliability of cell phones, the need to remember to charge them, and their extra cost. In the United States, where 92.9 percent of the population already has access to a telephone,¹ the growth of the less reliable and more expensive cell phone is nothing short of a phenomenon.

The Internet became a viable form of communication as early as the 1960s, but the commercial explosion of home-based Internet use started in the early 1990s. Like many technologies that seem to become second nature to a segment of the population, the Internet has developed to provide a host ofservices that may have been already available to people in other ways before they found their way to the online world. Many people, particularly the younger members of our society, spend hours each day negotiating the world of the Internet—time they are not spending with other forms of media or with other people. Google’s acquisition of the popular Internet site YouTube, on which anyone can post video clips, made headlines in October 2006 because of the $1.65 billion (in stock) purchase price. Within two months, Verizon, Fox, CBS, and NBC announced that they, too, were collaborating on offering an Internet alternative to YouTube.⁵ The television and film industries know that they’ve got to court the Internet crowd or lose valuable viewers of traditional media content.

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Personal habits also condition people to use communication technologies in particular ways. Checking cell phone messages or answering e-mail first thing in the morning is now as much of a routine for many as having a cup of coffee or brushing your teeth. Getting news or music over the Internet is convenient and can be done while sending e-mail, reading the latest celebrity gossip, or working from home, all over the Internet. Who your “friends” are can be listed in an available directory on a cell phone or on any number of personal social networking sites on the Internet. When a cell phone is programmed to block calls from anyone who hasn’t been entered into an “approved” call list, or someone removes your name from their roster of “friends,” the number of interactions on either technology are limited. There is no surprise that many people claim that the more we have access to communication technologies, the less we really communicate.

Sometimes cell phones and the Internet are the catalysts for social change, and sometimes they reflect social change: either way, these technologies are contributing to subtle changes in American values and to how different groups (based on age, gender, class, and race) use those changes to define individual and group identities. This book is about the changes that cell phones and the Internet—the dynamic duo—are bringing to American life, where the technologies always seem to be “on.” As a cultural history, this book examines how these two technologies—separately and together—are contributing to a change in American attitudes, behaviors, and cultural values.

It is probably human nature to want to believe that all technologies make our lives easier, better, or more efficient. After all, commercials for these products and services promise us better control over the chaos of our lives. When we first start using a new technology, we experience a learning curve. For those who learn quickly, expectations for what the technology can do for us can be wonderful. Those who struggle to learn how to use the technology may experience greater stress or anxiety. Some people try something, only to realize that they don’t really like or need it. But those who do master the technology tend not to notice how they begin to rely on it. The instantaneous nature of communicating with cell phones and the Internet leads us to transmit and receive information faster and with less consideration for how it might affect our lives. Our ability to connect immediately, anywhere, anytime, to someone conditions us to think of all activities in full operation twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. That hum we feel in the air may be constant, invisible potential for immediacy—or it may well be anxiety, particularly for those who allow these technologies to infiltrate so many aspects of daily life. Or, it may accompany the unspoken reality that our daily activities, both private and public, are changing our culture in ways that we don’t yet truly understand, and for that reason, we feel uncomfortable.

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Earlier technologies give us a clue to understanding social change. The telegraph and telephone changed American culture; they united east and west coasts with a distribution form that delivered communication and messages to people and changed the way they lived, worked, and played. The wired model of communi­cation became the backbone for telephony and the Internet, and even though we increasingly use these technologies in wireless form, the institutions, practices, and social attitudes about communication remain rooted in the structures that intro­duced wired communications to American culture in the late nineteenth century and all of the twentieth.

Our use of the term or terms Cell Phone Privacy Lawsuit: is for descriptive purposes only. There is no relationship between the owners of this website and the maker of the product discussed in this post. Our use of the words Recall, Class Action Lawsuit and other similar words related to an event do not necessarily mean that this event has occurred. Refer to the website of the United States Food and Drug Administration for information on drug or medical device recalls. If a Class Action Lawsuit is formed in relation to the product discussed in this post we will provide that information at the time the Class Action is formed. A Class Action Lawsuit is not required to exist for you to file a lawsuit if you have been injured by the product discussed in this post.

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Cell Phone Privacy Lawsuit