Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers is actively retaining those who became ill after being exposed to toxic substances at Fort Ord in Monterey County, CA.
Fort Ord is a former U.S. Army post which was built in 1917 and was used from 1917 to 1994. Information has come out since the base was closed indicating that the site was contaminated with toxic substances, including trichloroethylene (TCE), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and asbestos. These substances have been linked with a wide variety of health problems, including various cancers.
The Fort Ord lawyers at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers have been representing victims of toxic exposure, such as those exposed to TCE at Camp Lejeune, those exposed to PFAS at military bases, and those exposed to asbestos for over 30 years. We have recovered over $750,000,000 on behalf of our clients since 1990.
Call our Fort Ord attorneys today for a free consultation, or text us from this page, if you or a loved one suffered health effects after being exposed to toxic substances at Fort Ord. You may qualify for financial compensation, and we won’t charge you a fee unless and until we obtain compensation for you.
What Can I Be Compensated For In A Fort Ord Lawsuit?
While the VA is currently denying benefits for sick Fort Ord veterans based on outdated scientific knowledge, you may be eligible for financial compensation for your illness and illness-related losses in a Fort Ord lawsuit. You may be eligible for financial compensation for many losses, including but not limited to:
- Medical bills: You may qualify for compensation for any medical bills related to the illness you developed due to toxic exposure at Fort Ord, including past bills and any bills you may be reasonably expected to incur in the future. This can include compensation for prescriptions, surgeries, treatments, doctor visits and more.
- Pain and suffering: Becoming ill can lead to a lot of physical pain and mental suffering. You deserve to be compensated for your pain and suffering, and Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers has been successfully obtaining compensation for our clients’ pain and suffering for over three decades.
- Lost wages: You may have missed time from work after becoming ill. You may have been too sick to work, or you may have had to miss work due to medical appointments or treatments. You may be eligible for compensation for any wages you were unable to earn due to your illness.
- Loss of earning capacity: If you have become ill after being exposed to toxic substances at Fort Ord, you may no longer be able to do the job you used to, or you may no longer be able to work at all. You may qualify for compensation for any loss of earning capacity connected with your illness.
- Wrongful death: If you lost a loved one due to an illness they developed after being exposed to toxic substances at Fort Ord, you may qualify for financial compensation for numerous damages, including funeral costs, burial costs, any income your loved one would have earned, any pain and suffering your loved one experienced before their death, the loss of love and companionship of your loved one, and more.
What Evidence Might Help My Fort Ord Case?
Evidence is the key to building successful Fort Ord lawsuits.
Evidence in a potential Fort Ord lawsuit may include:
- Documents proving you or a loved one lived at Fort Ord
- Diagnoses
- Medical records
- Travel records
- Military service records stating dates and locations served
- Benefit records
- Medical bills
- Healthcare information
How Can Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers Help Me?
You won’t be able to obtain fair compensation for your illness without an attorney. Defendants won’t respect you if you’re not represented by an attorney, meaning they won’t offer you fair compensation out of court. They’ll dare you to sue them, knowing you can’t win in court without a lawyer.
Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers have been successfully representing victims of toxic exposure for over 30 years. Our experience allows us to recover the largest possible settlements for our clients.
We can help you obtain compensation for your illness by:
- Hiring the finest experts to give testimony
- Gathering evidence and analyzing it
- Performing witness interviews
- Making sure all of the right documents and statements are ready for trial
- Coming up with an airtight legal strategy
- Negotiating a financial recovery
- If necessary, litigating your case in court
How Much Do Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers Cost?
The only fee we charge is a percentage of any financial compensation we obtain for you. We don’t charge a fee if we don’t obtain a recovery for you. In other words, you won’t be charged unless and until we win your case.
Call us today for a free consultation if you or a loved one became ill after being exposed to toxic substances at Fort Ord.
Chemicals Were Improperly Dumped At Fort Ord For Decades
Toxic chemicals were improperly dumped at Fort Ord for decades, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
According to the report:
- Live grenades were tossed into canyons at Fort Ord
- Soapy chemicals were sprayed on burn pits of solvents and scrap metal
- Toxic substances were poured down drains, into buried, leaky tanks, and discarded in drums in the base’s landfill.
- A former airplane mechanic said he hosed down airplanes with solvents, and that, on Fridays, men would dump solvent, metal chips and paint in a burn pit, which would be lit on fire once per month then doused in foam.
- An anonymous caller reported in 1984 that around 30 55-gallon drums of a “solvent-type liquid” were illegally spilled at Fort Ord.
- Contractors brought in to clean up Fort Ord’s groundwater were warned not to tell people such as news media or public agencies about what was found in the drinking water.
TCE At Fort Ord
Fort Ord was added to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of America’s most polluted places in 1990 due to contamination of soil and drinking water with dozens of chemicals, some of which are now known to be carcinogenic.
One of those chemicals is TCE, which was detected in Fort Ord’s wells 43 times from 1985 to 1994. 18 of those detections were in excess of legal safety limits, with one of the detections being five times over the legal safety limit.
An Army official, in 1985, told newspapers that “there have never been any test results that indicate that Fort Ord’s water was unsafe,” according to the AP.
Veterans who are ill after being exposed to toxic chemicals at Fort Ord are currently being denied benefits due to a 1996 public health assessment, which concluded that “no one is being exposed to contaminants from Fort Ord sources,” and that “past exposures posed no apparent health hazard.”
However, the data that these conclusions were based on was limited, and science now has a greater understanding of the health effects linked with TCE.
Because of this, the CDC is now studying whether veterans were exposed to dangerous levels of carcinogens at Fort Ord.
TCE And Cancer
TCE is “known to be a human carcinogen,” according to the National Toxicology Program, Department of Health and Human Services, who found that TCE can cause kidney cancer in humans, and also found limited evidence that TCE can cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in humans.
The EPA has stated that TCE exposure has been linked with kidney, lymphatic system, cervix and liver cancers, and has stated that TCE is “likely to be carcinogenic in humans by all routes of exposure.”
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified TCE as “carcinogenic to humans.”
According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), there’s “strong evidence” that TCE causes kidney cancer in humans and “some evidence” it can cause malignant lymphoma and liver cancer. The agency notes that people can be exposed to TCE by drinking TCE-contaminated water, inhaling TCE-contaminated steam, breathing TCE released into the air by TCE-contaminated water, and absorbing TCE through the skin after coming into contact with TCE-contaminated water.
A 2010 study observed that exposure to TCE was linked with an elevated risk of developing multiple myeloma, and the ATSDR has noted that there is evidence linking TCE with multiple myeloma. Veterans in the Fort Ord region see 35 percent more diagnoses of multiple myeloma than the general United States population.
PFAS At Fort Ord
It has been revealed by the Army that two PFAS, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), were found in the groundwater at Fort Ord.
It was found that levels of PFOA and PFOS in a Fort Ord well were eight times higher than the EPA health advisory level.
It was found that the source of the PFAS found in Fort Ord’s groundwater was AFFF firefighting foam. PFAS are also found in firefighter gear.
PFAS And Cancer
The C8 Science Panel, in 2012, concluded that there is a “probable link” between exposure to PFOA and kidney and testicular cancer.
The EPA has stated that studies report an elevated risk of prostate cancers and bladder cancers in connection with exposure to PFOS.
Asbestos At Fort Ord
Buildings at Fort Ord that were dismantled in 2021 under the management of Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) contained asbestos, according to MST Assistant General Manager Lisa Rheinheimer.
A recent article at The Mercury News contained a photograph of sheeting covering demolished barracks at Fort Ord. The sheeting was labeled with asbestos warnings.
Asbestos And Cancer
Asbestos has long been linked with mesothelioma, an especially deadly form of cancer involving the thin layer of tissue covering internal organs. Asbestos-induced mesothelioma typically involves the lungs’ lining and the chest wall’s lining. There is no cure for mesothelioma and about eight percent of people who are diagnosed with it live for five years after the diagnosis.
Science has known that asbestos is dangerous since 1899 and science has linked asbestos with mesothelioma since 1943.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in 1976, found that “available studies provide conclusive evidence that exposure to asbestos fibers causes cancer.”
Fort Ord Lawyers
If exposure to toxic substances at Fort Ord caused you or a loved one to become ill, filing a Fort Ord lawsuit put together by experienced toxic exposure lawyers like those at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers could make the difference between a lifetime of medical debt and having all of your illness-related medical bills paid for.
The veteran advocates at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers have successfully resolved many claims on behalf of veterans and civilian contractors who were exposed to toxic substances. We have handled cases involving on-ship benzene exposure, and we have handled defense base act cases. Our staff has family who was stationed at Camp Lejeune and family who fought in World War II, the Persian Gulf, and Vietnam.
Call us today for a free consultation if you or a loved one became sick after suffering from toxic exposure at Fort Ord. You may qualify for financial compensation.
