Liability insurance pollution

Liability reduction. Facilities are responsible for their wastes from cradle-to-grave. By eliminating or reducing waste generation, future liabilities can also be decreased. Additionally, the need for expensive pollution liability insurance requirements may be abated. 

Although a few years ago there were indications that the UK insurance market was going to impose a total pollution exclusion on public liability insurance policies, no concrete signs have developed over recent times. Some general... 

This provides indemnity to the insured for damage caused to third parties as a result of pollution conditions emanating from the insured s premises. It has been used extensively in the USA and is now available in the UK. Some companies refer to this type of policy as Environmental Impairment Liability insurance. This title is a slight misnomer because it does not indemnify the insured for environmental damage per se, but for bodily injury and property damage caused as a result of pollution caused by the insured. 

State courts continue to hold insurance firms liable for environmental damages under general corporate liability policies even when policy language specifically denies pollution coverage (Quint 1994). 

This policy excludes all liability in respect of pollution or contamination other than caused by a sudden identifiable unintended and unexpected incident which takes place in its entirety at a specific time and place during the Period of Insurance . 

An insurance policy is available that will indemnify the insured for the costs incurred, up to the limit of indemnity, in the event of any pollution regulator using their powers to institute a clean-up of their site. This is a particularly important policy since it is quite common for a third party pollution claim to lead to a clean-up requirement on the site giving rise to the problem and the current public liability policies will not provide any indemnity for such expenses. 

Some insurers have used the type of wording found associated with public liability policies to restrict indemnity for sudden and accidental pollution only, to qualify indemnity for professional indemnity (PI) policies. Does the concept of sudden and accidental incident have any meaning when applied to a consultant s PI policy ... 

Where consultants are involved in providing contracting services as well as consulting services, they must ensure that they have an adequate degree of insurance to cover both aspects of their work. Although not common, it is possible to obtain tailor-made policies that encompass the indemnification provisions of both a professional indemnity policy and a public liability policy providing the necessary degree of cover for pollution related claims. 

Public liability policies are already having their scope reduced so there is no intended cover for gradual pollution damage and very real possibilities that their scope will be further reduced in the near future to remove cover for all forms of pollution related damage. UK industry should be aware of this restriction and companies should consider whether or not their existing portfolio of insurance provides adequate protection. 

Business interruption aspects of a TLC fundamentally include those insured and uninsured costs arising from any incidents which downgrade the system. These costs include those associated with injuries, property damage, fire, security, occupational health and hygiene incidents, pollution and product liability, which are the main areas of loss within the TLC concept. 

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