Chemical Exposure

Toxic exposure sometime occurs as a result of deliberate or negligent industry practices. In this clip, you can learn more about the various steps involved in proving a toxic tort claim.

MR. JONATHAN W. MILLER: You need to prove a link between toxic exposure and a disease from that exposure and the first thing is to prove sufficient exposure to the product and the amount of exposure you have to show and how you show it differs, perhaps, from product-to-product. For example, in the environmental field we, in our Hazleton case, had to use hydrogeologists to show a root of exposure from the product to our clients. Once you have sufficient exposure, the next step is to link that to the disease and that may not be easy. You start with general causation, which means that the substance, the benzene or whatever the chemical is, has to be able to cause the specific disease that you have. Sometimes this is easy to prove, sometimes it’s very difficult. We have had to use, for example, epidemiologists in order to prove this at times. After general causation comes specific causation, which means that your exposure to the disease caused your particular disease. Usually in this situation we have to rely on a medical doctor. Finally, once you have your exposure causing your disease, we have to prove the defendant’s liability for that exposure that caused your disease. This can be fairly straightforward or it can be extremely difficult if the defendant does not admit they made the product. All of this explains why you need good lawyers to handle your case.