Tennessee Law Blog

After three years of litigation, a $64 million class-action settlement
reimburses parents who were misled about the effectiveness and dangers of
Paxil.

These parents will receive full compensation from GlaxoSmithKline for what
they paid for the drug (out-of-pocket expenses), a rarity in these kinds of
dangerous drug medication cases in which victims usually can only receive a
percentage of what they lost.

Paxil was promoted as a drug to fix teenage depression. It leads to suicidal
thoughts. GlaxoSmithKline, the company who produces Paxil, made over $500
million in just its sells to minors.

The Paxil settlement allows anyone with a personal injury claim, such as
parents of a child who took his or her own life, to still sue.

To bring things home, Tennessee is no stranger to suicide and
antidepressents. As I've blogged about previously, more Tennesseans die
every year from suicide than from drunk-driving, homicide, or AIDS-an
estimated 750 people take their own life every year in The Volunteer State.
Even more live plagued by depression and suicidal thoughts.

Earlier this month FDA urged antidepressant pharmaceutical companies that
warnings on their drugs (including Paxil) should expand to include adults
ages 18 to 24 for the risks of suicidal thoughts and behavior. It is
interesting an extra six years have been added-and interesting that's the
extent.

The deadline to file claims for reimbursement is Aug. 31. Information for
submitting a claim can be found at www.paxilpediatricsettlement.com or by
calling the toll-free hot line, 1-866-494-8404.

Like cops in hardboiled movies, attorneys like to check up on those usual suspects on their beat. One I keep my eye on and was eying recently is BF Goodrich’s tire manufacturing plant in Tuscaloosa, AL a few hours south of our offices. A little over a year ago, the plant was fined by OSHA for more than $91,000 in penalties for workplace hazards after being issued 28 serious citations, 2 of which for repeat citations. Most of these dangers were basic matters to solve but life-threatening to workers, such as preventing worker falls into pits through floor openings, updating machinery to prevent electrocution, and not providing proper personal protective equipment like gloves and face shields.

What I found in the news was another occupational hazard.

Benzene.

The widow of a worker at the same Goodrich tire plant filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year. But instead of taking on Goodrich, she and her representation went after one of the largest distributors of atmospheric benzene: gasoline companies.
Since leaded gas went out with the Chevy Nova, benzene has been added to gasoline in its stead. Factory workers at tire building machines use gasoline as a solvent when constructing a tire. Her husband died of acute myelogenous leukemia, a disease almost exclusive to benzene exposure.

Benzene is used in other solvents other than gasoline, but this one caught my interest. Were workers at BF Goodrich informed of the dangers of benzene exposure?
No amount of benzene exposure is completely safe. Employees at Firestone in LaVergne, Tennessee, tire workers at Bridgestone in Morrison, and Nashville workers at Goodyear should be aware and reminded why wearing their respirator properly is important.

I’ve been trying to serve the public good for a number of years now, and, still, the hardest cases I encounter are benzene cases. Any time a common carcinogen’s involved, there’s a certain difficulty in establishing cause and effect.

Even if a client was exposed to benzene every day of his or her job as an oil refinery worker or tire plants, it’s not always easy to prove this exposure caused his/her cancer--but that’s not the hard part. Sure, when we’re all exposed a number of carcinogens from a number of places everyday, the corporations have a good shot a deferring responsibility, but what makes these cases hard are the clients going through chemo for acute myeloid leukemia or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma who know that they got it at work and the company they worked 40-plus hours a week for and made profitable won’t listen to their case.

What spurred this old ghost? A friend of my associate who’d gone to Rhodes College in Memphis contacted him the other afternoon wondering what he could do about the Williams Refining Co.’s release of benzene (as much as 31% over federal limit) that went unreported by the company for four years (1997-2001). Sure, back in February of this year they were fined $2.2 million by EPA for violating the Clean Air Act, but, he asked, what about Memphisites? He doesn’t smoke, but was still breathing in (and drinking) their carcinogenic waste the entire time he was in Midtown.

He asked what he should do.

I advised him not to start smoking.

Benzene travels in the blood and becomes a metabolite stored in the bone marrow. The more your bones absorb, the greater likelihood of their producing cancerous cells. If nothing else, benzene, like asbestos, are loyal: they’ll stick around with you for life.
I’m not sure I should feel fortunate that the EPA finally found and fined the factory after four years or lucky that the refining company was in Memphis and not Nashville and that the Smokies keep the wind blowing west away from the capital. Whatever it is I’m supposed to feel, I don’t feel good.