Pennsylvania workers, especially those who work in high-risk industries such as construction, understand that almost all jobs pose various workplace hazards that can cause accidents. Each state has its own workers’ compensation laws that allow employees who have suffered injuries on the job to file claims to compensate for their losses. Employees should note that a workers’ compensation claim is not only applicable to workplace injuries. Diseases caused by years of exposure to harmful chemicals in the workplace can also be compensated under a claim.
In Pennsylvania, a sportscaster is now suing chemical companies for allegedly manufacturing pesticides that killed his 56-year-old father who worked at a Pennsylvania golf course for 38 years.
The golf course worker was diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia nearly six years ago and died a year later of cardiac arrest. According to the doctor, the patient’s chromosomes and DNA were altered by being exposed to chemicals he applied to the golf course greens for nearly two decades. The chemicals he was exposed to were deemed unsafe for garden and home use by the Environmental Protection Agency eight years before the cancer diagnosis.
The sportscaster and his father’s estate filed a lawsuit against John Deere Landscapes, Syngenta, Monsanto, BASF, Dow and Bayer. According to the defendants, no substantial evidence links the pesticides to the worker’s death. Still, the plaintiff has enlisted medical experts, and has uncovered evidence that some of the pesticides previously used on the golf course were later banned due to detrimental effects on the human body.
In this case, the plaintiff is seeking damages from third parties, pesticide companies. Aside from filing a lawsuit against third parties, family members of the deceased worker can also file a workers’ compensation claim that would allow compensation for medical and funeral expenses.
Source: WTAE Action News 4, “Pittsburgh sportscaster suing chemical companies over dad’s death,” Paul Van Osdol, May 15, 2014