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Torts Keyed to Epstein
General Electric Co. v. Joiner
Citation:
522 U.S. 136 (1997)Facts
Plaintiff worked as an electrician for the city of Thomasville, Georgia. His job required him to work with the city’s electrical transformers, which used a mineral-based dielectric fluid as a coolant. The plaintiff often had to stick his hands and arms into the fluid to make repairs, and that fluid would sometimes splash into his eyes and mouth. In 1983, the city discovered that the fluid in some of the transformers was contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are generally considered to be harmful to human health—Congress had banned the production and sale of PCBs in 1978. The plaintiff was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 1991. He had been a smoker for eight years, and there was a history of lung cancer in his family.
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