If your workplace sits on or near property that was once home to metal finishing operations, dry cleaning facilities, aerospace manufacturing, or electronics production, there’s a real possibility that toxic vapors are seeping up from contaminated soil and groundwater into the building where you work.
This process is called soil vapor intrusion, and it’s more common than most people realize. Trichloroethylene, or TCE, a solvent used for decades as an industrial degreaser, is one of the chemicals most frequently found causing it.
The real question isn’t whether this can happen. It’s whether your employer or the property owner knew, or should have known, and did anything about it.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What Exactly Is Soil Vapor Intrusion
Soil vapor intrusion is the process by which hazardous vapors migrate from contaminated soil or groundwater into the air inside a building. When a volatile chemical like TCE is present in soil or dissolved in groundwater, it evaporates and moves as gas through the pore spaces in the ground above the water table.
Buildings often run at slightly lower air pressure than the soil beneath them, especially industrial facilities with powerful exhaust systems, and that pressure difference pulls soil vapors upward into the building through:
Cracks that form in concrete slabs as a structure settles and ages
Utility penetrations for electrical, gas, water, and process piping
Floor drains, sumps, elevator pits, and underground trenches
Gaps around columns and expansion joints
TCE vapors for example are colorless and, at typical vapor intrusion concentrations, usually have no noticeable odor, so workers may have no idea they’re being exposed.
Why TCE Creates Particular Concerns
TCE can exist as a dissolved groundwater plume, as a residue absorbed onto soil particles that slowly releases vapor over time, and as vapor-phase contamination in the soil gas itself, all of which can migrate upward into a building.
The health effects go well beyond a nuisance:
The EPA and IARC classify TCE as a human carcinogen. The strongest evidence concerns kidney cancer, the evidence linking TCE to liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma is real but less consistent
TCE affects the central nervous system, causing dizziness, drowsiness, headaches, and impaired coordination
Repeated exposure can damage the liver and kidneys and affect immune function
TCE exposure during pregnancy has been linked to fetal cardiac defects, a risk EPA has identified as one of the most sensitive effects of exposure
Workers exposed through vapor intrusion aren’t handling TCE as part of their job. They’re not trained on its hazards or given protective equipment. They’re simply breathing contaminated air while doing work that has nothing to do with chemicals.
What Are New York’s Health Screening Levels for TCE
The New York State Department of Health sets a chronic air guideline of 2 micrograms per cubic meter for TCE, lowered from 5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2015, along with a recommended immediate action level of 20 micrograms per cubic meter.
NYSDOH treats 20 micrograms per cubic meter as a threshold requiring immediate action specifically because of the fetal cardiac defect risk, meaning facilities with pregnant workers face a heightened obligation to act quickly if levels approach that range.
New York doesn’t rely on a single indoor-air number in isolation. Its decision framework, called Matrix A, weighs indoor-air results against sub-slab soil gas readings together:
Sub-slab TCE concentration | Indoor air TCE concentration | Recommended response |
|---|---|---|
Below 6 µg/m³ | Below 1 µg/m³ | No further action |
Below 6 µg/m³ | 1 µg/m³ or above | Identify source and resample or mitigate |
6 to below 60 µg/m³ | Below 0.2 µg/m³ | No further action |
6 to below 60 µg/m³ | 0.2 to below 1 µg/m³ | Monitor |
6 to below 60 µg/m³ | 1 µg/m³ or above | Mitigate |
60 µg/m³ or above | Any level | Mitigate |
This matters for workers because a building can require mitigation even when a single indoor-air sample looks acceptable on its own, if sub-slab conditions show a strong potential for future intrusion. A one-time “clean” indoor air result isn’t necessarily the end of the inquiry.
These numbers aren’t bright lines between safe and dangerous. To see how differently various agencies treat TCE in workplace air, it helps to compare the actual numbers side by side:
Standard | TCE level | What it reflects |
|---|---|---|
NY chronic indoor-air guideline | 2 µg/m³ (about 0.0004 ppm) | Health-protective, accounts for continuous long-term exposure and sensitive populations |
EPA TSCA workplace chemical protection limit (for certain continuing uses) | 0.2 ppm | Newer federal workplace benchmark, still subject to ongoing litigation |
100 ppm | Older enforceable occupational limit, set long before TCE’s cancer risk was as well understood |
Being below OSHA’s 100 ppm limit doesn’t mean a workplace is safe by current health standards, and a TCE reading above New York’s 2 microgram guideline doesn’t by itself prove negligence or injury. These are different tools measuring different things.
Federal regulation of TCE has also been tightening, though the details are still being sorted out in court. In December 2024, the EPA finalized a rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act banning most uses of TCE, and most of the ban took effect through 2025.
Certain workplace-related provisions of that rule, however, remain under active federal court review and have been repeatedly delayed, so the specific compliance deadlines that apply to a given facility can depend on the outcome of that litigation.
Can You Sue Over TCE Vapor Intrusion at Your New York Workplace
If you believe TCE exposure has caused or contributed to a health condition, the first avenue is usually a workers’ compensation claim, filed with the Workers’ Compensation Board using Form C-3.
For an occupational illness rather than a sudden accident, New York gives you two years from disablement, or two years from when you knew or should have known the condition was related to your work, whichever is later.
This is a separate deadline from the third-party lawsuit deadlines discussed below, and it applies regardless of who else may ultimately be responsible.
Beyond the comp claim itself, it’s important to understand how New York law treats a lawsuit, because it’s more specific than “your employer failed to protect you, so you can sue them.”
New York’s Workers’ Compensation Law generally makes workers’ compensation the exclusive remedy against your own employer for a workplace injury or illness, including one caused by chemical exposure at work.
That means you generally cannot bring a direct negligence lawsuit against your own employer for failing to investigate or address vapor intrusion, even if the employer’s conduct was careless. The exceptions are narrow: the employer didn’t carry required workers’ comp coverage, or the conduct amounts to an intentional tort, which ordinary negligence doesn’t meet.
That doesn’t mean you’re out of options. The exclusivity rule doesn’t protect parties other than your employer, so a claim may be available against:
The property owner, if it’s a different legal entity from your employer, for allowing contamination to persist or migrate onto the site
The company that originally used and released the TCE, if it’s no longer the current property owner or your employer
A neighboring property owner, if contamination migrated from their site onto or into your workplace
Environmental consultants or contractors, if a Phase I or Phase II assessment negligently failed to identify an obvious vapor intrusion risk
Even after accepting workers’ compensation benefits, you can generally still pursue a claim against one of these third parties for the same injury.
And in limited situations involving a “grave injury” as defined under New York’s workers’ compensation law, additional claims may be available. Because the right defendant depends heavily on who owns the property, who caused the original contamination, and what your employer knew, this is genuinely a situation where the facts drive the legal theory, not the other way around.
Claims involving a cancer diagnosis linked to TCE exposure, generally fall under New York’s discovery-based deadline for latent exposure injuries, CPLR 214-c: three years from when the injury was discovered, or reasonably should have been discovered, whichever is earlier. This exists precisely because diseases linked to chemical exposure often don’t show up until years after the exposure occurred.
Frequently Asked Questions
If my employer already paid for my workers’ comp claim, can I still pursue a case?
Yes, if a third party besides your employer contributed to the exposure. Workers’ compensation and a third-party claim aren’t mutually exclusive. Accepting workers’ comp benefits doesn’t waive your right to also pursue the property owner, the original polluter, or a negligent environmental consultant, though workers’ comp may be entitled to reimbursement from any third-party recovery.
What if the company that contaminated the property no longer exists?
The current property owner can still be a viable defendant even if the original polluter is gone. Contaminated property liability generally follows the site rather than disappearing with the original business, and a current owner who knew or should have known about contamination and failed to address vapor intrusion risk can still be responsible for resulting exposure.
Does it matter if my symptoms are mild compared to a coworker’s?
Not for whether you have a claim, though it affects what you can recover. TCE exposure symptoms and health effects vary significantly between individuals based on duration and concentration of exposure and personal health factors. A milder symptom presentation doesn’t mean there was no exposure or no legal claim, just that the resulting damages may look different than a coworker’s.
How is TCE exposure at work different from other occupational hazards I might have workers’ comp coverage for?
The distinction that matters legally isn’t the chemical itself, it’s who caused the specific failure. An injury caused entirely by your own employer’s workplace conditions is typically limited to workers’ comp. An injury connected to contamination from a distinct property owner, a prior business, or a negligent third-party consultant opens up a separate claim that workers’ comp doesn’t cover.
Can I request environmental testing results if my employer hasn’t shared them with employees?
You can ask, but your employer isn’t always required to share every internal report. If testing was submitted to NYSDEC or NYSDOH as part of a regulatory process, some of that information may be publicly available through those agencies. An attorney can help identify what’s already public and what may need to be obtained through other means.
Summing It Up
Soil vapor intrusion turns old, long-forgotten contamination into a present-day health risk for people who had nothing to do with creating it.
Figuring out what happened, and who’s actually responsible, usually comes down to who owned the property, who caused the contamination, and what testing has already shown, not just what your employer has told you.
If you believe TCE vapor intrusion is affecting your workplace, Porter Law Group can help you understand what the data shows and what your options are. Call 833-PORTER9, email info@porterlawteam.com, or contact us online.
This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for medical advice from a qualified healthcare provider or legal advice based on your specific circumstances.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
