I'm finding all of the outrage over the certainty of lawsuits and the mockery of the claimants and their attorneys rather amusing. It's amusing for several reasons:
1. Virtually the entire population of the Western world, with the exception of workers in industries such as aviation, naturally see
any exposure to petroleum-based fuels as a health hazard. That should really be obvious to everyone here, at least to everyone who is able to take a moment to view the situation through the eyes of ordinary laypeople.
2. Our legal system (to include essentially all of the English-speaking world) is deliberately designed and organized as an adversarial one. It is a feature of such a system that people who feel they have been harmed or wronged begin their quest for redress with exaggerated claims of suffering and maximum demonization of contemplated defendants. The processes that follow almost always bring the narrative closer to reality and rational analysis. This is just how it works. If you want a system that encourages dispassionate search for truth and fairness, you want a different system than we have.
3. Plaintiff's lawyers are paid to maximize their client's damage awards and the ones who do that best are often masters of melodrama. Again, it's a feature of the system. Milquetoast attorneys don't get big verdicts and aren't likely to be sought by lawyer-shopping clients.
4. Public servants and elected officials must be seen to be championing the causes of their constituents. That's how they keep their jobs, get re-elected, have support to advance their careers, etc. Another feature of the system.
5. The media make money, keep jobs, etc. by luring eyes and ears and attention to their various outlets and publications. And the masses are most attracted to hype. It's a matter of human nature.
None of this should be a surprise to anyone who is reasonably familiar with Western culture. And none of it is going to change, much, as long as our culture is organized as it is and has been for a very long time. Don't hold your breath.
Oh, just by the way, the people some of you are mocking are virtually certain to be significantly compensated for the injuries they believe they have suffered. That's going to happen because the prospective defendants have lawyers and accountants who know perfectly well that there's no way to avoid that. They can look into their crystal calls and visualize a courtroom where plaintiff's experts tell horror stories about the dangers of Jet A and show the impressionable jury images of associated suffering and typical MSDS documents for the fuel:
http://www.cpchem.com/msds/100000014588_SDS_US_EN.PDF