What is Asbestos?
Asbestos refers to a group of six, naturally occurring, minerals including chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite. All 6 are known carcinogens. The most commonly found types are chrysotile, also known as “white asbestos”, amosite “brown asbestos”, and crocidolite, known as “blue asbestos”.
Asbestos exposure is the primary cause of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma occurs when microscopic asbestos fibers are inhaled into the lungs or swallowed in our food. When the fibers enter our bodies, they become lodged in internal tissue. As the body attempts, in vain, to eliminate the asbestos fibers, it creates a buildup of scar tissue (asbestosis), and in some cases develops into cancer, including throat cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, and mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma generally has a latency period of 20 to 50 years from the time of asbestos exposure until symptoms appear or mesothelioma is diagnosed. Health experts predict that Americans will continue to suffer from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases for decades to come. Mesothelioma is not caused by smoking, and asbestos exposure is the primary cause of this disease.
Background of Asbestos Use Historically
These minerals have been used throughout history; dating as far back as the Ancient Greeks and Romans who used the mineral in their clothing and building materials because of its fireproofing qualities. Roman history books also show that Pliny the Elder noted “sickness of the lungs” in the slaves who worked with the mineral and wore clothing woven with asbestos.
Asbestos use gained popularity during the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s as factories found use for the mineral’s fireproofing qualities. By the early 1900s, asbestos was being mined in the United States and used widely as insulation for boilers, steam pipes and turbines in railroad cars, shipyards and automotive manufacturing. Millions of tons of asbestos were mined in the United State and put in thousands of products throughout the 20th century. Asbestos was very inexpensive and was used as a filler in many different products. For example, asbestos was used in insulation, roof shingles, gaskets, flooring products, cements, drywall muds, brake and clutch linings, paints, and textiles.
As early as 1925 the companies that used asbestos knew that is was dangerous to the workers, their families and the public. Medical studies commissioned by the companies revealed these dangers, but the companies chose profits over safety and hid these studies. As a result of their decision to not provide warnings of the dangers, thousands of Americans have been killed by asbestos. It was not until the late 1970s that regulation of asbestos use began in the United States, and asbestos is still not banned.
Below is a small sample timeline of events (also known as "The Asbestos Conspiracy") that occurred providing companies with knowledge that asbestos was dangerous:
- 1918: Frederick Hoffman, a medical statistician for the Prudential Life Insurance Company, reported in a United States Department of Labor Bulletin that American life insurance companies generally deny coverage to asbestos workers because of the "assumed health-injurious conditions of the industry."
- 1922: Louis Dublin, a statistician for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, writes that asbestos workers are at risk of injury to the lungs.
- 1930: One major asbestos company, Johns-Manville, produces a report, for internal company use only, detailing the fatalities and medical injuries of asbestos workers.
- 1932: A letter from the United States Bureau of Mines to asbestos manufacturer Eagle-Picher states, "It is now known that asbestos dust is one of the most dangerous dusts to which man is exposed."
- 1933: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company doctors find that 29% of the workers at one Johns-Manville plant are suffering from asbestosis. Johns-Manville settles lawsuits by 11 employees on the condition that the lawyer for the employees agrees that he will not bring any new actions against Johns-Manville.
- 1934: Officials at Johns-Manville and Raybestos Manhattan, rewrite an article about the diseases of asbestos workers written by a Metropolitan Life Insurance Company doctor to minimize the danger of asbestos dust.
- 1935: Johns-Manville and Raybestos Manhattan instruct the editor of Asbestos Magazine to publish nothing about asbestosis.
- 1936: A group of asbestos companies agree to sponsor research on the health effects of asbestos dust but require that the companies have complete control over the disclosure of the results.
- 1937: Roy Bonsib, Chief Safety Inspector for the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, documents illnesses such as asbestosis and analyzes the dust-creating potential of installing and removing asbestos insulation.
- 1937-38: The Industrial Hygiene Digest at the Industrial Hygiene Foundation includes 2 articles about industrial types of cancer by workers working with asbestos.
- 1942: An Owens Corning corporate memorandum refers to "medical literature on asbestosis . . . [and] scores of publications in which the lung and skin hazards of asbestos are discussed."
- 1942-43: The president of Johns-Manville says that the managers of another company were "a bunch of fools for notifying employees who had asbestosis." When one of the people in attendance ask, "Do you mean to tell me you would let them work until they drop dead?" According to deposition testimony, the response was, "Yes. We save a lot of money that way."
- 1944: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company finds 42 cases of asbestosis among 195 asbestos miners.
- 1944: The Journal of the Medical Association reports that asbestos is one of the "agents known or suspected to cause occupational cancer."
- 1948: The American Petroleum Institute Medical Advisory Committee, whose members include oil giants, received a summary of a paper in which the chief pathologist for E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co. suggested that the industry "aim at the complete elimination of the exposure" to asbestos.
- 1951: Asbestos companies remove all references to cancer before allowing publication of research they sponsor concerning exposure to asbestos.
- 1953: National Gypsums safety director wrote to the Indiana Division of Industrial Hygiene, recommending that acoustic plaster mixers wear respirators "because of the asbestos used on the product." Another company official notes that the letter was "full of dynamite," and urges that the letter be retrieved before reaching its destination. A memo from those files notes that the company "succeeded in stopping" the letter which "will be modified."
- 1964: Dr. Irving Selikoff publishes a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, proving that people who work with asbestos containing materials have an abnormal incidence of asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma.
- 1989 and 1991: In 1989, the United States Environmental Protection Agency bans asbestos and most of its uses, but, in 1991, asbestos companies win a federal lawsuit which overturns the EPAs asbestos ban.
- 1999: The Florida Supreme Court rules that Owens Corning willfully withheld information about the dangers of working with the company's asbestos products. The Florida Supreme Court describes it as a "blatant disregard for human safety involving large numbers of people put at life-threatening risks.
As stated, the above actions by these companies are just a small sample of the many actions by companies using asbestos which did so in disregard of the safety of their employees and other innocent victims. Companies, who so frivolously ignored the health of the public and their own employees, are the targets of our litigation.
If you have been exposed to asbestos or have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, we are here to help you. We understand that a mesothelioma diagnosis is devastating. Our firm only handles mesothelioma cases and offers access to medical support, legal guidance, and compensation. If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with mesothelioma and would like to learn more, please complete the form below for a free consultation. Mesothelioma, It's ALL We Do.