Chemical Products Liability and Environmental Litigation 2010

Recent societal, regulatory and legal developments are ushering in a new era in chemical products litigation. Products that were originally seen as benefi ts to society are now being vilifi ed because they affect a sensitive subpopulation, and a fl oodgate of litigation has been opened. Chemical companies and consumer products manufacturers are facing increasingly diffi cult challenges as causes of action are shifting away from traditional personal injury claims and focusing now on no-injury claims such as nuisance and consumer fraud. It is clear that chemical and consumer products manufacturers are now facing an uphill battle in defending against these claims, for example:

• Consumer fraud actions are increasing in abundance, wherein no injury needs to be proven.
• Chemicals are being banned rather than responsibly regulated.
• Courts are awarding medical monitoring damages that could be generational and therefore endless in nature.
• Certain cases are no longer preempted from being filed in state courts.
• Plaintiffs are prevailing despite offering a minimal causal nexus between the injury and the source.
• Advances in science, medicine, and technology have opened the door for plaintiffs to proffer new theories of liability.