Asbestos in the News:
From talcum powder to a tragically dying town, asbestos is already making news in 2019. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest asbestos stories of the year thus far.
Talcum Powder Trials Began in New York
Who knew talcum powder could be so dangerous? In New York’s specialized courts for asbestos litigation, talcum powder giants Johnson & Johnson, Colgate-Palmolive, and their wholesale suppliers face multiple lawsuits in 2019 after both the New York Times and Reuters ran in-depth articles claiming that the companies knew about asbestos contamination in their talcum powders. Johnson & Johnson lost a $4.7 billion jury verdict in St. Louis and still faces more than 9,000 lawsuits.
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18.5 Million Awarded in Arkansas Brake Shop Litigation
After a three-week trial in Little Rock, Arkansas, a jury ordered Honeywell International, Inc. to pay the estate of Ronald Burlie Thomas $18.5 million for his fatal asbestos exposure. Thomas worked at a Little Rock brake shop in the 1970s, exposing him to asbestos in brake shoe linings manufactured by a company now owned by Honeywell. During his employment from 1971-1983, he performed 10 to 12 brake jobs every day. Thomas was diagnosed with mesothelioma in March of 2017 and passed away in December of that year.
The Poisoned Town of Libby, Montana
Finally, one of the biggest asbestos stories in 2019 has been in the news for decades.The corporate giant, W.R. Grace, the owner of a Montana vermiculite mine, was accused of knowingly allowing not just its miners, but an entire town to breathe deadly asbestos dust. The U.S. government has called it “the worst case of industrial poisoning of a whole community in American history.” In 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency declared a public health emergency, the first since Congress passed the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as the Superfund.Studies by the EPA indicate that the old vermiculite mine released about 5,000 pounds of amphibole asbestos fibers over the town of Libby every day it operated. Asbestos spread across the local ball field, elementary schools, yards of townspeople, and the high school track. Asbestos was piled in heaps all over Libby and trucked away by train. As a result, thousands of residents were exposed. Twenty years later, this small town in Montana is still in the news because of the high rates of new mesothelioma cases diagnosed, with many more expected over the coming decades.If you or a loved one have been exposed to asbestos and have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, you may be entitled to compensation. For a FREE consultation, call the Madeksho Law Firm at 1-888-910-MESO, or contact us here.
