Turning contamination into accountability.
Toxic exposures can come from the places we live and work—factories, rail yards, chemical plants, older buildings, contaminated water systems, even consumer products. Too often, the entities responsible minimize risks, delay action, or conceal hazards, leaving workers and families to bear the consequences. Our role is to hold them accountable, pursue full compensation, and drive changes that prevent future harm.
At McEldrew Purtell, we focus on serious injury and wrongful death cases arising from chemical and environmental exposures. We build cases with the science – industrial hygiene, epidemiology, and product history – so our clients can focus on care and recovery while we fight for answers and results.
Toxic Tort Injury Lawyers
With decades of experience in catastrophic injury and toxic tort litigation, McEldrew Purtell is uniquely equipped to evaluate complex environmental and chemical exposure cases and determine whether unsafe products, industrial releases, inadequate warnings, regulatory non-compliance, or systemic safety failures caused the harm.
Our Results
McEldrew Purtell has a proven track record of maximizing recovery for our clients.
Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.
Navigating Toxic Torts: A Guide for Catastrophic Injury & Wrongful Death Victims
This guide provides an assertive, step-by-step overview of toxic tort lawsuits – from understanding what qualifies as a case, to navigating the legal process, to securing fair compensation. It is nationwide in scope and geared toward victims of severe injury or wrongful death.
Ways We Can Help
Toxic exposures often leave individuals and families facing lifelong health challenges. These cases are uniquely complex, involving product manufacturers, chemical suppliers, property owners, employers, and public entities, as well as intricate questions of causation, warnings, and regulatory compliance. Our experienced toxic tort lawyers are prepared to stand with you, uncover the truth through rigorous scientific and legal investigation, and fight for the accountability, medical care, and compensation you deserve.
Asbestos & Mesothelioma
Claims involving asbestos exposure at shipyards, construction sites, manufacturing facilities, and older buildings. Cases often arise decades after exposure and focus on product manufacturers, suppliers, and premises owners.
Benzene Exposure & Leukemia
Occupational and environmental exposure to benzene in refining, printing, manufacturing, and certain consumer uses. Frequently involves blood cancers and failure-to-warn/product-safety claims.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
CO exposure from faulty appliances, generators, boilers, or poor ventilation in homes, hotels, and workplaces. Cases often target property owners, maintenance companies, and product manufacturers.
Legionnaires’ Disease (Legionella)
Waterborne outbreaks linked to building water systems (cooling towers, spas, showers) due to inadequate monitoring and maintenance. Typically involves hotels, hospitals, senior facilities, and large residential or commercial buildings.
Pediatric Lead Poisoning
Lead hazards in homes, schools, or consumer products causing developmental and neurological harm to children. Claims often involve landlords, property managers, contractors, and product suppliers.
“Popcorn Lung” (Diacetyl) & Flavoring Chemicals
Inhalation of diacetyl and similar compounds causing severe, sometimes irreversible, lung disease in food production and flavoring workplaces. Focus on product safety, warnings, and industrial hygiene controls.
Pesticides & Herbicides (e.g., Glyphosate/Roundup)
Agricultural, landscaping, and residential exposures tied to inadequate warnings and risk communication. Cases examine long-term use, industry knowledge, and regulatory compliance.
Silica Dust (Silicosis & Lung Disease)
Exposures from cutting, grinding, or blasting stone, concrete, or engineered stone. Claims target employers (where permitted), contractors, respirator manufacturers, and suppliers over controls and warnings.
PFAS (“Forever Chemicals”) & Water Contamination
Community and occupational exposures from firefighting foams, industrial discharges, and consumer products. Cases center on groundwater contamination, corporate knowledge, and cleanup failures.
VOCs & Industrial Solvents (e.g., TCE, PCE)
Air and groundwater contamination from degreasers and solvents used in factories, dry cleaning, and aerospace. Claims focus on releases, vapor intrusion, and chronic exposure injuries.
Heavy Metals (Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium, Manganese)
Toxic metal exposures through drinking water, industrial emissions, or consumer goods. Matters often involve municipal suppliers, manufacturers, and premises owners.
Mold & Indoor Air Quality
Illness and property damage from uncontrolled moisture and inadequate remediation in apartments, schools, and commercial buildings. Claims typically involve landlords, property managers, and remediation contractors.
Talc & Asbestos-Contaminated Talc
Consumer talc products allegedly contaminated with asbestos fibers. Cases examine product testing, supplier history, and adequacy of warnings.
Food Contamination & Foodborne Illness
Severe illness linked to contaminated foods due to manufacturing, handling, or storage failures. Product-liability and negligence theories against producers, distributors, and retailers.
Rail/Industrial Spills & Community Releases
Acute and chronic exposures following derailments, plant explosions, pipeline leaks, or chemical fires. Claims seek medical monitoring, property damages, and personal-injury recovery.
Don’t Just Take Our Word For It
Hear From Our Clients
At McEldrew Purtell, results matter and so does the way we achieve them. While our case outcomes reflect our tenacity in court and at the negotiation table, it’s the voices of our clients that truly capture who we are and why we do this work.
We represent people at the worst moments of their lives: after catastrophic injuries, workplace tragedies, and preventable losses. Through every case, we aim to deliver not just compensation but clarity, confidence, and care.
If you’re considering working with a Philadelphia trial lawyer, we invite you to read what our clients have said about their experiences with McEldrew Purtell. Their words are the most powerful testament to our values, our dedication, and our results.
Learn More
PFAS “Forever Chemicals” in Drinking Water: What Families Should Know Before They Accept a Settlement or Filter Reimbursement
PFAS are a large group of manufactured chemicals often called “forever chemicals” because they can persist in the environment for a long time. In many communities, PFAS have been detected in public drinking water, leading to new federal standards, state…
Silicosis and the Legal Cases Making Headlines (2024–2026)
Silicosis is a serious, incurable lung disease caused by breathing in respirable crystalline silica, microscopic dust released when cutting, grinding, drilling, or polishing materials like stone, concrete, and sand. What’s driving the current wave of concern (and litigation) is a…
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Lawsuits: When the “Silent Killer” Is Caused by Negligence
Carbon monoxide (CO) is called the “silent killer” for a reason. It’s colorless, odorless, and tasteless and it can cause life-altering brain damage or death before anyone realizes there’s a problem. According to federal data, hundreds of people in the…
Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreaks and Lawsuits: What Victims Need to Know
Legionnaires’ disease is not a rare, one-off problem. It’s a growing building-safety issue that keeps surfacing in headlines: cooling towers on hospitals and telecom buildings, assisted living facilities, hotels, condos, and entire neighborhoods affected by contaminated water systems. Recent events…
Pennsylvania Farmland Cancer Cluster: What Residents Need to Know About the New Melanoma Study
A new Penn State Cancer Institute study has identified a significant melanoma “hotspot” stretching across 15 counties in south-central Pennsylvania. The findings suggest that people living near cultivated farmland may face a higher risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of…
Strict Liability Tort: Definition, Implications and Examples
Strict liability is a legal standard courts use to determine liability for certain torts. Understanding the implications of strict liability on your legal claim can help you pursue your claim more effectively. The attorneys at McEldrew Purtell can help you with your…
FAQs
Get answers to commonly asked questions regarding toxic tort injuries and learn how we can help with your case.
What is a “toxic tort” case?
It’s a civil claim alleging injury or death from exposure to a harmful substance—at work, at home, or through a product or environment. These cases use medical and scientific evidence to connect the exposure to the resulting disease.
Why are toxic tort cases challenging?
Two hurdles dominate: (1) proving causation (linking exposure to disease, sometimes decades later) and (2) proving the responsible party’s role in the exposure, especially when products were marketed widely over many years.
What diseases are commonly associated with chemical exposures?
Asbestosis, mesothelioma, leukemia, lung disease, Hodgkin’s disease, aplastic anemia, and silicosis are among the conditions linked to industrial and chemical exposures.
Who can be held liable?
Depending on the facts: product manufacturers, suppliers, contractors, property owners/landlords, employers (where permitted), maintenance companies, and others in the chain who controlled, supplied, installed, or failed to warn about the hazard.
What are the most common diseases associated with chemical exposure?
Chemical and industrial exposure can make itself known over the course of a lifetime — many times, people affected by these exposures no longer work at the companies responsible or live in the homes or areas affected. The fact that the diseases which result are uniformly serious worsens their predicament.
The following diseases are all linked to such exposures:
- Silicosis
- Asbestosis
- Mesothelioma
- Leukemia
- Lung disease
- Hodgkin’s disease
- Aplastic anemia
