A mass tort is a civil action involving numerous plaintiffs against one or a few corporate defendants. The tort may involve, for example, personal injuries suffered by numerous plaintiffs as a result of a defective product, or a mass disaster in which there were many injured persons, such as an airplane crash, or exposure of a large group of people to toxic chemicals or pharmaceuticals.
Altoona is a town in Etowah (and a small portion of Blount) County in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is part of the Gadsden Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2000 census the population was 984. According to the 2005 U.S. Census estimates, the town had a population of 970.