Articles Posted in Mesothelioma Case

In In re: New York City Asbestos Litigation, a mesothelioma case from the New York Court of Appeals, court records indicate defendant sold valves to the U.S. Navy.  These valves were designed to be used under high pressure and in high heat situations aboard naval ships.  The valves themselves did not actually contain asbestos or any other hazardous materials.

However, these valves would not work properly under the expected conditions unless a gasket was used along with the valve as well as insulation and a packing material for the valve stem.  These gaskets and insulation were made from asbestos, and the instructions that came with valves called for the use of this asbestos material. Continue reading

A number of public health officials are pushing for the Environmental Protection Agency to put asbestos at the top of their list of regulatory priorities. However, Bloomberg reports those in the pool chemical industry are concerned about this. That’s because chlorine, caustic soda and other chemicals manufactured in this industry use asbestos. In fact, the U.S. Geological Survey lists the chlor-alkali industry as the No. 1 importer of asbestos in its yearly mineral commodity summary. The chlorine industry’s use of asbestos accounts for 90 percent of the 358 tons of asbestos imported into the country last year, according to the survey’s most recent report.

While many people think of asbestos as a man-made product, it is actually a naturally occurring substance made up of a combination of silica elements.  It forms in the ground like other minerals and has been used by humans for thousands of years.

However, it was during the 1800s in the industrial revolution that it became heavily used, and, by the 1970s, when the asbestos ban went into effect, asbestos was used in just about every residential, commercial, and industrial construction project in much of the world. There are various reasons that asbestos was used so heavily. Continue reading

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Stidham involved plaintiffs who were diagnosed with lung cancer that attempted to join a single lawsuit against the tobacco companies and the producers of asbestos and asbestos products. These plaintiffs asserted that their cancers were the result of both exposures to deadly asbestos fibers as well from years of tobacco smoking.

This is not the first time that plaintiffs sued both the cigarette manufacturers and the asbestos companies together, but in this case, there were procedural challenges.  In this jurisdiction, asbestos cases are tried on a special asbestos docket. Continue reading

As you may have heard, last month President Barack Obama signed a bill into law that allows the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to more easily ban toxic substances, including deadly asbestos fibers. This bill was one of the few bills in recent history that received bipartisan support.

While many people think asbestos was banned in the late 1970s, what they may not realize is that the EPA’s ban was overturned a few years later by the U.S. Supreme Court on grounds that this type of ban could not be accomplished exclusively by an executive agency without the support of Congress.  This is not to say that it was unconstitutional to ban asbestos, but rather the way in which it was done was the problem. Continue reading