What is happening in coal tar pitch litigation?
In recent lawsuits filed against coal tar pitch makers in Pennsylvania and Texas, several large firms are named as responsible. These lawsuits allege that the manufacturers of coal tar pitch were aware of the cancer-causing nature of their product for many years, and yet did not warn the end-users of their products that the products could be dangerous. The lawsuits allege that the warnings given by coal tar pitch manufacturers were either non-existent or worded so mildly as to not cause alarm among the end users. Some lawsuits also name as defendants the companies that use coal tar pitch in their plants, such as Alcoa. These lawsuits generally involve a plaintiff who has contracted bladder cancer, kidney cancer, melanoma, lung or other cancers.
