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.
Bethalto is a village in Madison County, Illinois, USA. Bethalto, like the rest of Madison County, is part of the Illinois Metro-East portion of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The population of Bethalto was 9,454 at the 2000 census.