Contamination Attorneys

There has been a disturbing trend recently, popping up in military bases across the country. A popular flame-retardant chemical used as an aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), commonly used as a fire extinguishing agent has been found to contain high quantities of the dangerous chemicals PFOA and PFOS. PFOA and PFOS are known animal carcinogens and likely human carcinogens, highly soluble in water and not easily biodegradable. These chemicals have been proven to cause cancers and other serious medical conditions.

When used in the Fire-fighting foam application mentioned above, they may not be properly disposed of and have the potential to seep into the ground water and the local water supply.

This foam has been commonly used on Army bases, Air Force hangars, and other military installations.

In late 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency amended its guidelines on PFOA and PFOS exposure. However, this action may have come too late for thousands of victims, many of them infants and children, who had already ingested tainted water.

PFOA does not exist in nature. Instead, it is artificially made and used in a number of goods, including the firefighting foam used to combat airplane fires and other large-scale infernos. PFOA and similar chemicals, including polytetrafluoroethylene (PFTE), are very stable, making them quite attractive for a substance like firefighting foam, which lays dormant for months or even years before being called into action.

That same stability means that PFOA stays in a person’s body for a very long time. The heated chemical residue left over after a fire is much like phosgene, one of the most common World War I-era poison gasses.

According to the EPA, this substance has been confirmed to be present at several hundred military installations across the USA.

PFOA is so dangerous that even a few extra parts per trillion is sufficient to cause many serious illnesses. Laboratory tests have conclusively linked PFOA to:

Developmental damage to fetuses during pregnancy,
Low birth weight,
Accelerated puberty,
Distorted bones,
Kidney and testicular cancer,
Liver tissue damage,
Impaired production of antibodies, and
Cholesterol changes.

Various organizations, including the EPA and the International Agency for Research on Cancer have already classified PFOA as potentially carcinogenic, and with more research coming out on a continual basis, the number of warnings, and the strength of these warnings, is sure to increase.

PFOA has also been linked to developmental delays, which is why the EPA urged pregnant mothers and infants not to drink the water in areas surrounded by PFOA and PFOS.

In many cases, the largest element of damages is often medical bills, as the direct costs alone can easily eclipse $250,000 per illness. In other cases, such as those that involve developmental delays, the victims have substantial lost future wages, because the PFOA poisoning prevented them from reaching their full potential. In all these cases, substantial punitive damages are often available. Juries must award these damages if there is clear and convincing evidence that the defendant deliberately ignored a known risk and put other people at risk.

PFOA contamination destroys lives. For a free consultation with an aggressive personal injury attorney in New York, contact Napoli Shkolnik PLLC. We do not charge upfront legal fees in negligence cases.

Have you been poisoned by the water at your base?

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