Tangelo Park Chemical Exposure Lawsuits

Originally designed to be a residential neighborhood for a nearby military missile and weapons testing site, Tangelo Park has now become surrounded and overrun with factories, big-box distribution centers, and other large industrial corporations such as Lockheed Martin. Its extreme corporate overgrowth has tragically transformed this once lovely landscape into a concrete nightmare, and has directly contributed to the deterioration of the health and well-being of its residents.

Within the past few years, attorneys in the Orlando area have witnessed a strange increase in the amount of calls to their offices regarding clients who have been inexplicably suffering from rare auto-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as an alarming amount of devastating cancer diagnoses. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that this ailing group of people had absolutely nothing in common other than the fact that they either reside or work within Tangelo Park - something that was not simply shrugged off by local lawyers as a mere coincidence.

A personal injury lawsuit was recently filed against aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin regarding their Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) branch located within the Tangelo Park complex. The lawsuit alleges that Lockheed Martin has been releasing toxic pollutants into the atmosphere for decades which has seriously contaminated the quality of the breathing air, soil, and groundwater for the entire region. It goes on to state that due to their alleged negligence in the disposal of these hazardous volatile organic compounds, people in the Tangelo Park area are suffering from toxic chemical exposure and have fallen ill with a shocking amount of life-destroying cancers and rare diseases. More specifically, that the company:

• Allegedly dumped contaminated waste water into nearby ditches instead of repairing dilapidated refuse containers.
• Allegedly released VOC toxins into the air instead of sealing them off appropriately.
• Allegedly allowed their waste management system to fall into disrepair.

Cleaning agents and industrial solvents are frequently utilized by heavy-duty manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin and are oftentimes comprised of volatile organic compounds more commonly referred to as VOCs, which contain cancer-causing carcinogens including, but not limited to:

• Ethylbenzene - a colorless flammable liquid which smells similar to gasoline
• Methylene chloride - a volatile, chloroform-like liquid compound
• Perchloroethylene - a colorless liquid frequently referred to as “dry-cleaning fluid”
• Trichloroethylene - a colorless non-flammable liquid which smells similar to chloroform
• Vinyl chloride - a colorless flammable gas typically used to manufacture plastic PVC pipes

These chemicals can be emitted into the air during a company’s manufacturing & production and are additionally used as industrial-strength solvents to wash away and dispose of toxic waste created during production. Toxic carcinogenic compounds such as these have been long-known to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Services as one of the top causes of birth injuries, cancer, and other deadly diseases such as:

• Autism, cerebral palsy, and other developmental disorders
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• Spina bifida and cleft palate
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other types of debilitating cancers
• Severe birth defects and malformations

Victims of chemical exposures will likely face an uphill battle in their rehabilitation process for many reasons, but mainly because these are not the types of illnesses and injuries that you quickly recover from. More often than not, these people will lose their jobs or are eventually forced to quit because their broken-down bodies cannot continue on with employment while battling a crippling disease. This, combined with the fact that most people receive their insurance and medical coverage through their employers, has put victims in the serious position of not knowing how to proceed with the next chapter in their lives.

In cases such as these, it is incredibly important to seek out a knowledgeable and extremely qualified attorney to represent you and professionally navigate every step of the way as we battle these large corporations for fair & just compensation. For over forty years, Orlando toxic tort lawyer James O. Cunningham has dedicated his life to representing the victims of chemical exposures. If you are a Tangelo Park resident or employee and have recently been diagnosed with cancer, please contact our firm today at 877-FL-INJURY to schedule a free 30-minute case evaluation.