Stuart H. Smith

Who is Stuart H. Smith?

Stuart H. Smith is a practicing plaintiff attorney licensed in Louisiana. He is a founding partner of the New Orleans-based law firm SmithStag, LLC. Smith has practiced law for nearly 25 years, litigating against oil companies and other energy-related corporations for damages associated with radioactive oilfield waste, referred to within the oil and gas industry as technologically enhanced radioactive material. The waste product is also known as naturally occurring radioactive material, or NORM. The two acronyms TERM and NORM describe a substance that exists naturally in trace amounts – in soil and rocks, for example – and as such poses little health risk to humans. However, when the substance – primarily made up of radium-226 and radium-228 – becomes concentrated through industrial processes, like oil production, it takes on toxic qualities. Exposure to radium is known to cause a variety of illnesses, including cancer. Radium exposure can have significant impact on the human body, and the damage can be particularly acute because radium is chemically similar to calcium –– and as such is frequently absorbed by bones after entering the body.