August, 2009

Summary: Pollution, and the associated costs of cleaning polluted sites, has become one of the major problems facing the insurance industry during the last few decades. The main problem stems from judicial interpretation of the pollution exclusion as it exists on the 1973 comprehensive general liability insurance policy and on subsequent commercial general liability (CGL) coverage forms. This article offers a discussion of the pollution exclusion and some relevant court cases that will help the reader understand the status of the pollution exclusion in relation to insurance coverage.

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