Toxic Tort Legal Glossary: P

Para Occupational Exposure: Exposure to asbestos through the fibers that cling to worker's clothing, shoes, skin and hair.

Pathologist: A specialist physician expert in the origin and development of disease and the microscopic analysis of body tissues.

Pathology: The study of disease.

Permissible Dose: The dose of a chemical that may be received by an individual without the expectation of a significantly harmful result.

Persistent Pesticides: Pesticides that do not break down chemically or break down very slowly and remain in the environment after a growing season.

Phenols: Organic compounds that are byproducts of petroleum refining, tanning, and textile, dye, and resin manufacturing. Low concentrations cause taste and odor problems in water; higher concentrations can kill aquatic life and humans.

Plaintiff: The party who initiates a lawsuit by filing a complaint with the clerk of the court against the defendant(s).

Pleura: Membrane lining the lungs and chest cavity.

Pneumoconiosis: Fibrosis and scarring of the lungs as a result of repeated inhalation of occupationally associated dust, such as silica, asbestos, and coal dust.

Pollutant: Generally, any substance introduced into the environment that adversely affects the usefulness of a resource.

Pollution: Any substances in water, soil, or air that degrade the natural quality of the environment, offend the senses of sight, taste, or smell, or cause a health hazard. The usefulness of the natural resource is usually impaired by the presence of pollutants and contaminants.

Polychlorinated Biphenyls: A group of toxic, persistent chemicals used in electrical transformers and capacitors for insulating purposes, and in gas pipeline systems as a lubricant. The sale and new use of PCBs were banned by law in 1979.

Potentially Responsible Party: Any individual or company-including owners, operators, transporters or generators-potentially responsible for, or contributing to a spill or other contamination at a Superfund site. Whenever possible, through administrative and legal actions, GPA requires PRPs to clean up hazardous sites they have contaminated.

Product Liability Defenses: The doctrine of "strict liability" has long applied in suits involving defective products. Strict liability ensures that one who is responsible for bringing a dangerously defective product into the marketplace or workplace compensates those injured by the product. However, some states have enacted new defenses for those who manufacturer or sell defective products. For example, some laws establish a presumption that an injury-causing product, drug or medical device is not defective or unreasonably dangerous if the product complies with government standards. This benefits manufacturers that profit from weak and long out-of-date health and safety standards, like manufacturers of cars, trains, factory equipment and school buses. Other provisions require an injured consumer to prove the existence of an "alternative design" for a defective product, which would have prevented the harm but would not have hurt the product's marketability. This forces plaintiffs, who are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to knowledge about technical design alternatives, to prove the existence of such alternatives when this defense is raised. Other laws immunize manufacturers that produce products with design defects if the products have "obvious risks," like tobacco, or are considered "unavoidably unsafe," like guns -- even if a defective gun accidentally discharges and kills someone.

Propellant: Liquid in a self-pressurized pesticide product that expels the active ingredient from its container.

Pulmonologist: A specialist physician expert in the treatment of lung disease.

Putrefaction: Biological decomposition of organic matter, with the production of ill smelling and tasting products, associated with anaerobic (no oxygen present) conditions.