Illinois Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Many people do not realize that when they are in a car accident, whether minor or serious, two potential claims are created: property damage and bodily injury. With the way insurance policies are written these days, and the way the claims are processed, it is important for the average driver to understand the realities of how to get compensated for injuries suffered in a car accident, whether they be related to your property or your body. Property Damage. The most common claim that gets attributed to a property damage portion of a policy is the damage to the car itself. But, it is not just limited to that. Items in the car, articles of clothing, or even damage to the area around the crash, all fall under property damage. The owners of this property are entitled to fair compensation for the value of what they lost, often determined by the fair market value of the item immediately before it was damaged, or the cost to fix it and put it back in the condition it was in immediately before it was damaged. What drivers need to be aware of is that these claims are often assigned to insurance adjusters who just handle these types of claims and not bodily injury claims. Thus, for one accident, there can not only be two claims, but two insurance adjusters as well. Bodily Injury. These claims are for the people physically hurt in a car crash, whether they be the driver, a passenger, or even someone outside of the cars that was struck. Their personal injury claims fall under bodily injury coverage provisions of insurance policies. Whether the injuries are minor, some bumps and bruises, up to broken bones, concussions, or even death, all claims for injuries to a person in a car accident fall under bodily injury coverage. Given the complexities of modern insurance policies and the practices of some insurance companies in processing claims, it is important that you know your rights if you are injured in a car accident or any type of accident. Only an experienced attorney can properly advise you of what your rights are in any given situation involving a car accident. Before giving any type of statement to an insurance company, if you are in an accident and suffered any type of injury, you should speak with an attorney who has your interest in mind.
NEW STUDY: PCE EXPOSURE LINKED TO VISION PROBLEMS
A study published on July 11, 2012, in Environmental Health Perspectives finds a scientific link between prenatal and early childhood exposure to PCE and adult vision problems. The study was conducted by public health researchers at Boston University. It studied a population on Cape Cod, Massachusetts exposed to PCE release from vinyl domestic water supply pipes. PCE is among the most common — and dangerous — chemicals released worldwide due to its prominent use as an industrial cleaning agent and a common dry-cleaning fluid. PCE has been previously linked to many diseases, including diseases of the vital organs, cancer, and mental illness. (See, post on this blog dated February 1, 2012, relating to study of this same population finding a link with mental illness.) Research continues to demonstrate that the threats to people from exposure to chemicals dumped by polluters are more substantial than those responsible for protecting us admit. To read this study click on this link. Prenatal and Early Childhood Exposure to Tetrachloroethylene and Adult Vision.
Got Clean Water?
Thirsty? A drink of clean water is available in most places in our wonderful country. It’s available on tap in our homes, at water fountains in parks and in our children’s schools. Cool, clean aqua is available in the water coolers in our offices. If you are thirsty – go get a glass. A pretty simple concept, right? Drinking water is healthy and the best hydration option. If you are thirsty or hot or parched, go get yourself a glass of water. Sadly, in other areas of the world, this simple concept is not even an option. According to the World Water Council, 1.1 billion of the world’s population live without clean drinking water. 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation, mostly because they don’t have access to clean water. 3,900 children die every day from water-borne diseases, i.e., “dirty” water. Pretty scary statistics, right? Still thirsty? In places like Zambia, Africa – the families living there do not have access to a clean drinking supply. They don’t have clean water to irrigate their gardens to grow food, and their children are especially threatened by water-borne diseases and poor nutrition caused by this lack of clean water. The Pollution Lawyers are a proud financial supporter of the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise clean water projects. Our financial support will continue to strengthen a long term commitment by the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise to clean water projects in Zambia, Africa. Administered through the Tikondane Community Centre in Chipata, the funds support a program aimed at improving the basic health and nutrition of a population of 20,000. The program constructs wells that supply clean water for drinking and cooking as well as to irrigate gardens that produce vegetables to supplement a meager diet. This money also provides for education and skills training, latrines, sustainable protein sources, and a new clean water well and irrigation system. Children in particular benefit from a reduced rate of illnesses and the nutrition increases their ability to learn at school, which is also provided by Tikondane and the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise. So, maybe the next time you fill up at the water cooler or help yourself to a public water fountain, or even water the flowers in your garden, you will stop and reflect on how fortunate most of us are in America to have access to this water. Billions of others aren’t as fortunate. (Blog post contributed by Johannah Drerup) Thirsty? A drink of clean water is available in most places in our wonderful country. It’s available on tap in our homes, at water fountains in parks and in our children’s schools. Cool, clean aqua is available in the water coolers in our offices. If you are thirsty – go get a glass. A pretty simple concept, right? Drinking water is healthy and the best hydration option. If you are thirsty or hot or parched, go get yourself a glass of water. Sadly, in other areas of the world, this simple concept is not even an option. According to the World Water Council, 1.1 billion of the world’s population live without clean drinking water. 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation, mostly because they don’t have access to clean water. 3,900 children die every day from water-borne diseases, i.e., “dirty” water. Pretty scary statistics, right? Still thirsty? In places like Zambia, Africa – the families living there do not have access to a clean drinking supply. They don’t have clean water to irrigate their gardens to grow food, and their children are especially threatened by water-borne diseases and poor nutrition caused by this lack of clean water. The Pollution Lawyers are a proud financial supporter of the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise clean water projects. Our financial support will continue to strengthen a long term commitment by the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise to clean water projects in Zambia, Africa. Administered through the Tikondane Community Centre in Chipata, the funds support a program aimed at improving the basic health and nutrition of a population of 20,000. The program constructs wells that supply clean water for drinking and cooking as well as to irrigate gardens that produce vegetables to supplement a meager diet. This money also provides for education and skills training, latrines, sustainable protein sources, and a new clean water well and irrigation system. Children in particular benefit from a reduced rate of illnesses and the nutrition increases their ability to learn at school, which is also provided by Tikondane and the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise. So, maybe the next time you fill up at the water cooler, help yourself to a public water fountain, or even water the flowers in your garden, you will stop and reflect on how fortunate most of us are in America to have access to this water. Billions of others aren’t as fortunate. (Blog post contributed by: Johannah Drerup)
NEW STUDY: PCE EXPOSURE LINKED TO MENTAL ILLNESS
A study published in the journal Environmental Health on January 20, 2012, finds a scientific link between exposure to PCE in early childhood and the development of mental illness. The study was conducted by some of the most prominent and respected toxicologists and public health researchers in the nation. It studied a population on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The subjects were exposed to PCE in their drinking water supplies between 1969 and 1983 during early childhood. The PCE was released from vinyl water distribution pipes on Cape Cod. The study found an increased incidence of mental illness, including depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia in the subjects. The findings of the study are extremely significant from a public health perspective. PCE is among the most common — and dangerous — chemicals released worldwide due to its widespread use as an industrial cleaning solvent and as the most common dry cleaning fluid. PCE has been previously linked to many diseases, including diseases of the vital organs and cancer. This groundbreaking research shows once again what many of us in the field already know and expect — the threats to people from exposure to chemicals indiscriminately handled by polluters are more substantial than those responsible for protecting us are willing to admit. A copy of the study can be found here.
THE POLLUTION LAWYERS HELP CNN SPOTLIGHT THE DANGERS OF CONTAMINATED SCHOOLS
In every case we have the same worry: “what is this contamination doing to the children?” Whether the contamination is TCE in drinking water coming out of the kitchen tap and showerhead; PCE in “vapor” form in the air that the family breathes every moment in the home; or arsenic in the dirt in the family’s front yard where the children play, we worry most about what these chemicals are doing to the children. Because we know that these very dangerous chemicals are most dangerous of all to children. Each of The Pollution Lawyers – – Norm Berger, Mike Hayes, Ed Manzke, and me (Shawn Collins) – – is a lawyer second… and a father first. We understand that every parent’s most consuming duty is to keep his/her child safe, and we feel personally the anxiety of every parent we have come to meet in our cases that get hit with the horrible news that the home and neighborhood in which they have been raising their children is not the safe place they thought it was. So we were especially disturbed to learn recently that New York schoolchildren had been attending The Bronx New School for a 6 month period last year during which school officials knew (but the kids’ parents did not) that there were high levels of cancer-causing TCE in the air that the kids were breathing at the school every day. In fact, we wrote several blogs about it. [see those blogs here] Enter CNN, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and his producer, Jen Christensen. They have been investigating contaminated schools as part of their Toxic America series and asked if we would contribute to their TV story. I was honored to be interviewed by Dr. Gupta’s team, and wanted you to know about the story CNN ran on “CNN Presents” this past weekend. They were kind enough to include me in the story, and you can watch it here if you’d like (my contribution is at time 3:20 of this video). We have sadly learned from years of fighting pollution and polluters that when children are in environmental harms’ way, it is irresponsible adults who have put them there. We believe that the CNN story sheds important light on a serious problem threatening many American children, and truly hope that, through this story and the work of dedicated people, our children will be much better protected against dangerous chemicals in their homes, neighborhoods, and schools.
STUDY LINKS VAPOR INTRUSION TO BIRTH DEFECTS
For decades, hundreds of homes in a section of Union, New York known as Endicott have been sitting above a plume of TCE and PCE contaminated groundwater. TCE and PCE are man-made solvents historically used by corporations to strip grease and grime off metal parts. Endicott is just south of a former IBM manufacturing facility that released thousands of gallons of these solvents into the environment. One of these solvents, TCE, has recently been classified as a known human carcinogen by the USEPA. Although the dangers of drinking TCE and PCE laced-water have been documented for years, less research has been devoted to the inhalation of TCE and PCE. Endicott, with its long history of groundwater contamination, provided researchers with valuable insights into the dangers of inhaling TCE and PCE. The Endicott Study, conducted by researchers at New York’s State Department of Health is one of the first studies to examine the health effects of breathing PCE and TCE contaminated air from vapor intrusion. Vapor intrusion is the process whereby TCE and PCE in groundwater beneath homes vaporizes and moves up through the ground and into the air inside homes. Department of Health Researchers looked at health statistics from 1,440 live births to mothers living above the Endicott groundwater plume between 1978 and 2002 and compared them to health-related statistics for children born throughout New York. Their findings were alarming. The researchers found that children born in the Endicott Study area had higher rates of adverse health issues including heart defects and low birth weight. In addition to these findings, a previous health statistics review of the Endicott area by the Department of Health also found a significant elevation in the number of kidney and testicular cancers. This study is significant because it provides tangible support for the proposition that inhalation of TCE and PCE via vapor intrusion can be dangerous to human health. Our hope is that the Endicott Study, which is slated for publication in Environmental Health Perspectives, will be used by state and federal environmental and public health regulators as support for tougher clean-up standards at contaminated industrial sites and to force the corporate polluters responsible for environmental contamination to respond quickly to protect homeowners and their families from the health threats posed by vapor intrusion.
STIFF-ARM CITY: Chancellor and Department of Education Break Promise to Families of Highly Contaminated Bronx New School
Before we get to the broken promise, let’s first re-cap DOE’s disregard for the health of the children who have attended The Bronx New School for the last 20 years [feel free to visit my previous blogs on this subject dated: 8/30, 8/26, and 8/22. ] (1) In 1992, DOE signs a 20-year lease to convert an old industrial site – – with a history of heavy use of toxic chemicals – – into an elementary school (which became The Bronx New School). (2) Even though there are abundant, publicly-available records showing that the site may be contaminated, DOE does not take the couple of hours needed to find and read these records. (3) Likewise, DOE does not test – – at a cost of only a few thousand dollars – – the old industrial site, to find out if it was contaminated… before DOE sends young children, teachers and administrators there for 8 hours every day. (4) Nearly twenty years go by. Many hundreds of students attend, and then graduate from, The Bronx New School. Still no testing. (5) Until January 2011. That’s when the 20-year lease on The Bronx New School site is up, and DOE wants to release. DOE says that now it must do environmental testing. Before a new lease can be signed. Note that, for the past 20 years, concern for the health of the students never made DOE think that it should do environmental testing. DOE says that there’s a law that mandates testing before re-leasing a building. Evidently, there is no law that forbids making a school out of a contaminated old industrial site. . . or that mandates reading public records or testing to see if a site is safe before sending children there in the first place. (6) Environmental tests taken in January of this year – – and then again in March, April, and May – – reveal extremely high levels of a chemical known as “TCE” in the air in the cafeteria, hallway, and basement of the school. Levels up to 10,000 times what NewYork City’s own Department of Health says is safe. TCE is one nasty chemical. It’s a known cancer-causer. But it’s colorless and odorless, so you don’t see or smell that it’s in the air. Adults, and especially children, should not be breathing TCE. The immune systems of children do not process toxins well, and so the toxins do more damage in children than in adults. (7) But DOE does not tell the parents of the children attending the school, or the school staff, about the TCE they are breathing. Instead, DOE had the kids and staff finish out the school year (another 6 months), continuing to breathe the air that DOE (but no one else) knew was laced with a highly toxic chemical. (8) In early August of this year – – well after the end of the school year – – a seemingly contrite Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott tells horrified parents for the first time of the TCE contamination, and that it is so bad that their children will no longer be attending school there. And then, on August 18, in response to public demands that former Bronx New School students be located and informed that their health might have been jeopardized while they attended the school, Wolcott promised two things. First, he promised to make a master list of former students, so that they could be kept abreast of developments about the contamination at the school. Second, he promised to hold additional informational meetings, presumably to share new information as it became available, and to answer questions from these suddenly very worried families. And they have good reason to be worried, alarmed even. The TCE levels detected at the school earlier this year – – if they are representative of past levels – – are high enough to cause serious illness to those breathing them for hours each day. Also, because many years can pass between exposure to TCE and manifestation of the illness it can cause, students who attended the school years ago are right to believe that good health today does not mean they are “out of the woods” for contracting TCE-related disease. Walcott’s promise of a list and informational meetings was made to a deserving and emotionally vulnerable audience. . . to quell their outrage and anguish. The promise of the list was especially important. The list would serve as a database of alumni of the New Bronx School, to allow for medical monitoring of those former students. It would keep track of sickness patterns, and help these families force the state to take responsibility for medical treatment if it can be shown that a former student’s illness was caused by exposure to TCE at the school. Walcott’s promise was made almost 4 months ago. But today? No list. And no meetings. Current and former Bronx New School families have reminded Walcott of his promises. . . in phone calls and public statements they have made to try and reclaim his and DOE’s attention. But Walcott will not meet with them (instead meeting only with a select group of parents comprising the Parents’ Association – – a meeting which reportedly did not include parents of the former students). [See this December 21 Riverdale Press article: Parents say DOE ignored them after school toxin exposure] What’s going on with Walcott and DOE? Why are they hiding from these families? More importantly, what are they hiding from these families? Why make promises to such vulnerable people, and then break them? There is no one in the entire New York school system more deserving of DOE’s time and attention than these families. Since 1992, DOE failed in its most fundamental responsibility to protect the children of The New Bronx School. Now, it’s failing to protect them. . . again. How dare DOE stiff-arm these families as they try to understand what has happened to their children.
EPA ADMITS FRACKING POLLUTES GROUNDWATER
EPA has finally acknowledged that fracking can cause groundwater contamination. In a draft report issued this month concerning an investigation into the contamination of a drinking water aquifer in Wyoming, the EPA concluded “. . . . the explanation best fitting the data for the deep monitoring wells is that constituents associated with hydraulic fracturing have been released into the wind River drinking water aquifer. . . .” (Click on EPA_ReportOnPavillion_Dec-8-2011 for the entire report) EPA has proven, once again, that if it walks like a duck and quacks like one . . . . it’s a duck. In recent years the oil and gas fat cats have been making millions and millions of dollars by injecting fluids containing dangerous chemicals into the ground to cheaply recover previously unrecoverable oil and gas. And, rather than admit the obvious — that this can create serious environmental problems through the uncontrolled release of harmful chemicals — they have followed their time-tested approach. They deny the obvious. They obfuscate the facts. They support bogus legislation to protect themselves (like the Texas law allowing them to keep fracking chemicals secret). And, they brand as “job killers” people who demand sound scientific analysis before launching into potentially catastrophic action (the gas industry recently commissioned a study finding that they created over 600,000 jobs so they can pre-empt those who would question their unfettered operation). Didn’t we just go through this in the Gulf? The EPA study proves that before we allow the industry to launch headlong into fracking operations everywhere they think they can make a buck, a thorough scientific analysis must be undertaken by people interested in protecting the humans and the environment likely to be affected. It must be done on a project-specific basis. The recent events in the Gulf have taught us that industry cannot be trusted where there is big money on the line. Is our government any different? We can do better as a nation. We can create jobs responsibly, and without sacrificing our future.
STAND UP AND FIGHT… YOU CAN SHAME YOUR GOVERNMENT INTO DOING SOMETHING ABOUT CONTAMINATION IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
This is a hopeful story. But it must first wind its way through some seemingly discouraging territory. Hang with me, though, and we’ll get to the hopeful part. I promise. Here’s the discouraging part: You cannot trust your government to tell you that your air or water is contaminated. Or to protect you against the contamination. That’s a terrible thing to say. But it must be said because it’s true. Here’s just some of the evidence that we’ve seen:
Our First Case: Early on, the state EPA was about to give a polluted industrial property an environmental “clean bill of health” (called a “No Further Remediation” letter). This means that EPA was about to declare that the nasty chemicals (mostly TCE) dumped on the company’s property could not migrate off of it in groundwater. We didn’t believe it. So we spent our own money to test the groundwater in our clients’ neighborhood across the street. We found TCE all over the place. In fact, as more testing over the next few months would prove, TCE from the industrial property had traveled almost three miles off-site.
Our Most Recent Case: In a case, we just filed in Madison, Wisconsin, the state’s environmental agency (the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: “DNR”) earlier this year asked a local manufacturer to test in and around the homes of some of the families living behind the company to see if a chemical (mostly PCE) spilled years ago on company property had moved off-site. The testing turned up PCE almost everywhere they looked… in the dirt in the families’ yards; in the groundwater running under the neighborhood; in gas underneath some of the homes; and even in the air that people breathe literally inside one of the homes. So, in forcing this testing, the government did its job, right? Hardly. DNR knew since at least 1994 that the company’s property was contaminated with PCE, and that there were families living only 50 feet away. And yet DNR waited nearly 17 years to see if any of these families had been affected by the PCE.
IS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FOR SALE… OR DOES IT JUST LOOK THAT WAY?
You may have heard that President Obama is trying to get himself re-elected. What you may not have heard is what US EPA Chief, Lisa Jackson, is doing to help him. Last month, the President sent out an invitation to attend his money-raising events in San Francisco. The invitation said that, by giving $5,000, contributors would receive a “Season Pass” to so-called “VIP events,” and that:
- “The Season Pass is a monthly speaker series of top-level people from the administration and campaign who will come to the Bay Area, at least once a month, to have more intimate, in-depth gatherings with Pass holders”
- “…The idea is to give a smaller group of people a personal introduction to a lot of amazing people as well as VIP status at the big events (i.e., smaller receptions, preferred seating) and have the chance for more substantive discussions and interaction.”