Death Records Now

This is in regards to a recent incident in Texas City that took place between April 6 2010 – May 16 2010 in which BP admits(as an estimate) to releasing 538,000 lbs of chemicals (17,000 lbs of benzene, 37,000 lbs of nitrogen oxides, 186,000 lbs of carbon monoxide) due to a failing component in their Texas City plant, that they chose to not shut down due to production losses that would be incurred. The galveston daily news originally reported this on June 5, 2010 with little public attention being paid to it. I recently read, in a small local San Leon publication (San Leon Seabreeze), a follow up article to this which claims the effects of this chemical release were far greater than BP is acknowledging. The publication went as far as to say that people will start developing cancer in 1-2 years, and that there will be a large death toll. From a legal standpoint, would you have to be ill and dying before you could take legal action on this? How would something like emotional distress figure into this? If they were releasing chemicals in the air and I was unaware at the time, I now feel as though I could be breathing dangerous chemicals at any given moment. Not to mention their horrible safety record, and the 2005 explosion that took place in Texas City. Anyone got some legal advice?

First, it sounds like irresponsible journalism and fear mongering…

Second, you have to be damaged before you can take legal action. The question is, when are you damaged? At this point, you don’t even know if you were exposed to the chemicals, much less whether you have been damaged by them. Once you have been damaged, your claim becomes ripe and can be brought.