Kelly-Frye mandates the exclusion from evidence of test results to determine facts when the tests are generated by a new scientific machine, mechanism or instrument which is unproven or experimental. The principle was first stated in Frye v. United States (1928) 293 F. 1013. It was later adopted by the California Supreme Court in People […]
Toxic Chemical Exposure & Birth Defects
Calculating Property Damage in Pollution and Environmental Cases – Anatomy of a $2,000,000 Property Damage Settlement, Part III
INTRODUCTION In May, 1994, forty-two families in Sutter Creek, California learned their homes, which had been constructed between 1975 and 1985, were built on land contaminated with mine tailings containing arsenic. In California’s Gold Country background levels of arsenic in soil are approximately 22 parts per million [ppm]. But on these properties, arsenic levels were […]
Environmental Pollution and Property Damage: Overcoming the Defenses of Consent and Custom and Practice – Anatomy of a $2,000,000 Property Damage Settlement, Part II
INTRODUCTION In May, 1994, forty-two families in Sutter Creek, California learned their homes, which had been constructed between 1975 and 1985, were built on land contaminated with mine tailings containing arsenic. In California’s Gold Country background levels of arsenic in soil are approximately 22 parts per million [ppm]. But on these properties, arsenic levels were […]
Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Fetal Neurotoxicity, Microcephaly and Mental Retardation: In Utero Brain Damage Caused by Toxic Solvent Exposure
Introduction Congenital microcephaly, abnormally small head circumference, is caused by environmental or genetic factors. Genetic causes of microcephaly do their damage through Mendelian patterns of inheritance of a defective or damaged gene or chromosome. Many cases of microcephaly are denominated “idiopathic” because the likely causal factor(s) are not known. Nonetheless the vast majority of the […]
Fetal Brain Damage, Developmental Delays and Intellectual Impairment as a Result of Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyl [PCB] in Pregnancy
Children exposed in utero to low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs] have suffered long-term brain damage, decreased learning skills, and low I.Q. scores according to a study of 212 eleven year olds whose mothers had elevated concentrations of PCBs as a result of eating Lake Michigan fish contaminated with the chemical. These mothers at birth […]
