Preview Newsletter
Asbestos PA Media Analysis
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Asbestos turns up in toys, children's clay
Nov 27, 2007 | Seattle pi
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
Asbestos has been found in a variety of consumer products, including one of this season's biggest-selling Christmas toys, according to the nation's largest asbestos victims organizations. -
Several Companies Hit With Asbestos Lawsuit
Apr 22, 2014 | Top Class Actions
By Amanda Antell
North Carolina plaintiffs Vernon and Dea Aune are suing multiple manufacturing companies for the injuries the primary plaintiff, Vernon Aune, suffered after being exposed to their asbestos products. The Aunes allege that in direct result of being exposed to the asbestos products, he developed the deadly cancer, mesothelioma. -
Jury awards Oklahoma man $6 million in asbestos lawsuit
Jun 12, 2015 | The Oklahoman
By Richard Mize
A Moore man who sued more than a dozen companies for what he described as decades of negligent workplace exposure to asbestos prevailed against two of them for a judgment of $6 million in a jury trial in Oklahoma County District Court. -
Garlock Seeking Info From Asbestos Firms To Boost Racketeering Claims
Oct 2, 2015 | Legal Newsline
By John O'Brien
Some asbestos law firms are being dragged into racketeering lawsuits against their colleagues. Now that a federal judge has affirmed its right to do so, Garlock Sealing Technologies recently issued subpoenas to 29 law firms, including Baron & Budd, Brayton Purcell and Williams Kherker Hart Boundas. -
Jury awards $8.75 million in asbestos lawsuit
Jun 4, 2016 | Associated Press
By Associated Press
A jury has awarded $8.75 million to a 65-year-old man who has incurable cancer as a result of asbestos exposure in the 1970s. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that David Hoff’s attorneys say the former construction worker’s mesothelioma was caused by a wallboard product that became airborne when it was sanded down. -
Knox County settles asbestos lawsuit with widow of late teacher
Apr 12, 2016 | Knoxville Sentinel
By Megan Boehnke
Knox County has reached a "tentative settlement" with the widow of a former South-Doyle High School teacher who died from mesothelioma, officials said Tuesday.
Plaintiff's Attorneys
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Asbestos turns up in toys, children's clay
Nov 27, 2007 | Seattle pi
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
Asbestos has been found in a variety of consumer products, including one of this season's biggest-selling Christmas toys, according to the nation's largest asbestos victims organizations.
The CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit, two brands of children's play clay, powdered cleanser, roof sealers, duct tapes, window glazing, spackling paste and small appliances were among the products in which asbestos was found by at least two of three labs hired by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.
The group, which was created in 2004 by asbestos victims and their families, spent more than $165,000 to have government-certified laboratories examine hundreds of consumer products over 18 months to determine whether asbestos was present.
It is unusual for a group of volunteers, many of whom have asbestos-caused diseases, to fund research that impacts public health.
"We had to. No one else was doing it," said Linda Reinstein, the group's co-founder and executive director. "This is information that consumers and Congress must have because asbestos is lethal and we naively believe that the government is protecting us, when it's not."
The product that is of greatest concerns to some public health experts is the fingerprint kit, which is a huge seller, according to sales personnel interviewed by the Seattle P-I.
The kit, made in China, is one of several items licensed by CBS after its popular "CSI" science-crime shows. This model has an extensive array of plastic tools, inks and three types of very fine powders -- white, black and glow-in-the-dark. The analysis done for the victim's organization found high levels of two types of asbestos in the white and the glow powder.
Physicians are especially concerned because of the significant likelihood of children breathing in asbestos fibers as they hunt for fingerprints and use a soft-bristled brush to move the powder around.
CBS Consumer Products responded quickly when told of the reported contamination.
"We've asked our licensee to immediately conduct an independent test in the U.S. for asbestos. If the toy is determined to be unsafe, then we will insist that the licensee remove it from the market," a statement from a CBS spokesman said.
The manufacturer and distributor -- Planet Toys in New York City -- said in an e-mail that it frequently inspects the plants in China that make the CSI toys.
"The kit has been tested and has met all safety standards requirements as set by toy safety agencies and legislation, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission," a spokeswoman said, but added, "The agencies don't require asbestos testing and therefore we have never been apprised of any unacceptable levels of asbestos.
"We respect anyone's right to test our products and should their or our future tests reveal anything unacceptable, we'll of course take swift action to remove contaminated products from the market."
Some of the products tested for the organization contained less than 1 percent asbestos, which would not be prohibited under the partial asbestos ban just passed by the Senate. Industry lobbyists succeeded in watering down the complete ban that Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., tried to pass. The House soon will hold hearings on the legislation and is expected to attempt a complete prohibition of all asbestos-containing products.
But other products, including the CSI fingerprint kit, exceeded that level, at about 5 percent asbestos. One of the highest levels of asbestos -- 30 percent -- was found in a roof sealer.
Health experts insist that asbestos at any level must be considered potentially hazardous.
"Any amount is harmful. Even 1 percent can represent millions of fibers, so we need a complete ban of all asbestos, at any level," said Dr. Arthur Frank, co-chairman of the organization's science advisory board and chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia.
Dr. Michael Harbut, an international authority in the diagnosis and treatment of asbestos-related diseases, calls the 1 percent exemption a "get out of jail free" card provided by the government to those who "profiteer off the asbestos-related deaths of Americans who wrongly believed these types of products are safe."
The products tested for the organization were bought from several national retail chains, including Wal-Mart, Costco, Toys "R" Us, Home Depot, Lowe's, Macy's, CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond and others.
Another product the labs said contained asbestos was Art Skills' Clay Bucket, where asbestos was found in six colors of clay.
The Pennsylvania-based family business uses clay from Thailand and, Jennifer Hogan said, produces "a safe and hazard-free product" which has "passed all toxicology tests required to conform to applicable United States safety standards."
Hogan says her firm appreciates the seriousness of the organization's concerns "and will pursue vigorously any evidence of hazardous substances in our products."
Three varieties of Ja-Ru Toy Clay contained asbestos, according to the laboratory reports. Omnimodels in Jacksonville, Fla., which distributes the clay from China to major toy chains, did not respond to a request for comment.
"There is no excuse for this. The fact that asbestos is still being found in consumer products is appalling," said Dr. Aubrey Miller of the U.S. Public Health Service, who has been researching asbestos health issues with the Environmental Protection Agency for almost a decade. "Even more concerning are products sold to be used by children. They have more time to exhibit the health effects from exposure to these disease-causing fibers."
The laboratories reported asbestos in Scotch High Performance Duct Tape and its All Weather Duct Tape, both of which are manufactured in Canada, according to 3M.
"3M has a policy against using asbestos in our products," said Jackie Berry, a corporate spokeswoman, "and we don't use asbestos in our duct tape."
The labs also said asbestos was found in numerous tests of DAP Crack Shot Spackling Paste and DAP's 33 Window Glazing.
David Fuller, vice president of marketing for DAP, said "neither product contains asbestos. As a responsible company, DAP has been, and will continue to be, in regular contact with our suppliers and will routinely review information and regulations relevant to ensuring the safety and efficacy of our products."
The test results reported high levels of asbestos in Gardner Leak Stopper. A request for comment from Gardner-Gibson's Headquarters in Tampa went unanswered.
Asbestos also was also found in hair rollers, hot plates and small appliances imported from China and sold in major drug store chains. The organization may do additional testing on those products and others.
Paul Zygielbaum, a survivor of mesothelioma, and his wife, Michelle, proposed tests of products readily available on U.S. store shelves.
"Our reasoning was that, while the continuing legality of asbestos doesn't seem to cause public outrage, the actual, unsuspected presence of asbestos in everyday products might do so," said Zygielbaum, who managed the testing.
Everyone involved with the organization's testing is convinced that numerous other products being sold contain asbestos.
"Every exposure to asbestos fibers is associated with an increased risk of cancer and asbestosis," said Harbut, who is co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos Related Cancers. "The use of these sorts of products may explain at least in part why some non-smokers get lung cancer and persons with no occupational exposures develop mesothelioma."
"In a perfect world, the manufacturers of these products would ensure that they are toxin-, carcinogen- and asbestos-free. In the real world, one of the cardinal responsibilities of government is to protect the people. It's just not happening,"
After reporting its findings at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday morning, the organization says it will submit its testing information to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the EPA.
"The government really needs to act responsibly and honestly and understand that political compromises have no meaning to a family devastated by an asbestos cancer," Harbut said.
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization's Reinstein says, "The government has to do its job."
"There is no reason at all for the American consumer to pull a product off the market shelf and wonder whether it has asbestos in it that can kill them or their family. Just no reason at all," Reinstein said. Her husband, Alan, died of mesothelioma last year.
http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Asbestos-turns-up-in-toys-children-s-clay-1257038.php
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Several Companies Hit With Asbestos Lawsuit
Apr 22, 2014 | Top Class Actions
By Amanda Antell
North Carolina plaintiffs Vernon and Dea Aune are suing multiple manufacturing companies for the injuries the primary plaintiff, Vernon Aune, suffered after being exposed to their asbestos products. The Aunes allege that in direct result of being exposed to the asbestos products, he developed the deadly cancer, mesothelioma.
Mr. Aune was first exposed to the asbestos products in the 1950s when he worked as an apprentice and journeyman carpenter for JD Harold. His work included projects working with electrical wire, plastering materials, metal cutting, and sheet rock installation. Mr. Aune was exposed again in the 1960s and 1970s when he used building materials containing asbestos, for personal home-improvement projects. The materials he worked with at the time included DAP Caulk and Sherwin Williams Paint.
Mr. Aune was officially diagnosed with mesothelioma on Feb. 26, after years of asbestos exposure. The Aunes are filing the asbestos lawsuit based on the fact that it was in direct result of working with the hazardous materials that he developed mesothelioma. Mrs. Aune is filing additional charges against the manufacturing companies for loss of consortium, as her marriage has been permanently alter by her husband’s condition, and may be at risk for developing mesothelioma as well.
According to the asbestos lawsuit, there were no warnings or precautionary instructions on the labels of the products, nor had any of the companies taken any effort to warn him, after the asbestos warnings were released in the 1990s. There is currently no cure for mesothelioma, and will impair Mr. Aune for the remainder of his life.
So for being directly responsible for manufacturing, selling, distributing, and marketing a dangerous product, the Aunes are suing Certainteed Corporation and other listed defendants in the asbestos lawsuit. The charges include negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.
This asbestos lawsuit is Vernone Aune and Dea Aune vs. Certainteed Corporation, Case 1:14-cv-00298-TDS-LPA, in the U.S. District Court of Middle North Carolina, the Greensboro Division.Overview of Asbestos Complications
The asbestos litigation movement is the longest-running mass tort in the history of the United States, with more than 600,000 asbestos lawsuits filed, against over 6,000 defendants. Up until 1973, asbestos was used primarily in gaskets, brakes, walls, building construction, cement, boilers, pipes, ships, dry wall, engines, steamers, and a variety of other construction products. It popular because it was cheap and had fire and chemical resistance.
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral, which can be up to 700 times smaller than a human hair. Despite its initial popularity, there have been a variety of health complications linked to the material. When undisturbed, the materials containing asbestos do not pose a health risk to people working or living in the asbestos environment. However, if the fibers are released, they become embedded in the mucous membranes of the victim’s nose and throat, which leads to conditions such as mesothelioma. Three major health concerns have been identified from asbestos exposure:Asbestosis — serious, chronic, non-cancerous respiratory disease caused when the inhaled asbestos fibers scar the lung tissue.Lung cancer — largest number of deaths related to asbestos exposure. The most common symptoms are coughing and a breathing-rate change.Mesothelioma — a rare form of cancer that most often occurs in the membrane lining of the lungs, chest, abdomen, and (rarely) heart. This sickness is found to be specifically linked to asbestos exposure.
In general, asbestos mesothelioma lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/24253-north-carolina-couple-sues-manufacturing-companies-asbestos/
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Jury awards Oklahoma man $6 million in asbestos lawsuit
Jun 12, 2015 | The Oklahoman
By Richard Mize
A Moore man who sued more than a dozen companies for what he described as decades of negligent workplace exposure to asbestos prevailed against two of them for a judgment of $6 million in a jury trial in Oklahoma County District Court.
Michael D. Galier, 51, filed the product liability lawsuit in 2012 after he was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma. A jury found for him in his claims against Murco Wall Products of Fort Worth, Texas, and Welco Manufacturing Co. of North Kansas City, Mo.
The jury found a third defendant, Red Devil Inc. in Tulsa, not liable. Judge Bryan C. Dixon dismissed Oklahoma City’s M-D Building Products Inc., formerly Macklanburg-Duncan, from the suit last year but did not bar Galier from filing another suit on the same claims.
Jurors awarded no punitive damages in the case, which was decided May 18.
Galier, who owns and maintains rent houses, referred questions to attorney Jessica Dean of the Dallas law firm Dean Omar Branham.
Dean said asbestos lawsuits rarely go to a verdict. Her response to the success of this rare case?
“Grateful,” Dean said. “The jury was thoughtful and attentive in a case that lasted over two weeks. The company lawyers had more lawyers and resources and argued everything to muddy the issues. We focused on the central issue: Mike worked in home construction for years where these companies supplied asbestos products and did so when they were fully aware that those using the products and their families were at real risk of dying from cancer.”
In the lawsuit, Galier claimed that from 1970 into the 1980s, he “experienced bystander exposure through his father,” a homebuilder and remodeler in Moore and Oklahoma City.
He further claimed that he was exposed to asbestos as a laborer on homebuilding sites in Moore in 1981-1982, as a laborer and contractor at rental properties throughout the 1980s, and in the early 1990s as an auto mechanic doing brake and clutch repair.
Galier sued for damages related to pain, mental anguish, medical and hospital care and physical disability.
Dean said Galier learned during the trial about asbestos and how companies have handled issues surrounding it since it was determined to be cancer-causing decades ago — and he hopes his case helps get the word out.
“Mike was very engaged in the case,” Dean said. “He wanted to understand what the companies knew and understood about asbestos hazards and when he learned, he wanted others to know.”
Dean said Galier’s case was the first in Oklahoma to go to verdict in years.
“Most companies acknowledge their fault and a reasonable settlement is reached,” she said. “Even in this case we were able to settle with the other responsible companies that were initially sued.”
Neither Michael D. Carter, G. Calvin Sharpe nor Catherine L. Campbell of Oklahoma City law firm Phillips Murrah PC, who represented Welco Manufacturing Co., could be reached Thursday; nor could Richard N. Dodson, an attorney in Texarkana, Texas, representing Murco Wall Products.
http://newsok.com/article/5426974
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Garlock Seeking Info From Asbestos Firms To Boost Racketeering Claims
Oct 2, 2015 | Legal Newsline
By John O'Brien
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Legal Newsline) – Some asbestos law firms are being dragged into racketeering lawsuits against their colleagues.
Now that a federal judge has affirmed its right to do so, Garlock Sealing Technologies recently issued subpoenas to 29 law firms, including Baron & Budd, Brayton Purcell and Williams Kherker Hart Boundas.
On Sept. 3, U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen ruled that records being sought by Garlock could help establish a pattern of racketeering on the part of Belluck & Fox, though he noted the discovery requests are broad.
“Yet, so is the fraud in which Plaintiffs are alleged to have engaged,” Mullen wrote.
Belluck & Fox is one of a handful of firms Garlock is suing. The others are Simon Greenstone of Dallas, Stanley-Iola of Dallas, Shein Law Center of Philadelphia and Waters & Kraus of Dallas.
Garlock filed the RICO suits days before a landmark ruling in 2014 in its bankruptcy case.
During a 2013 trial that determined how much money Garlock needed to put in a bankruptcy trust to compensate asbestos victims, the company was permitted full discovery into the cases of 15 plaintiffs.
What the company found showed that plaintiffs attorneys routinely delayed submitting claims to bankruptcy trusts while lawsuits against solvent defendants, like Garlock used to be, were pending.
This was done with the intention of pinning more blame on Garlock, the company said.
Judge George Hodges agreed. His January 2014 ruling agreed with the company’s assertions, and he ordered the company to put $125 million in the trust – more than $1 billion less than plaintiffs attorneys had requested.
“These fifteen cases are just a minute portion of the thousands that were resolved by Garlock in the tort system,” Hodges wrote in a passage the company cited in its recent court filing.
“And they are not purported to be a random or representative sample. But the fact that each and every one of them contains such demonstrable misrepresentation is surprising and persuasive.
“More important is the fact that the pattern exposed in those cases appears to have been sufficiently widespread to have a significant impact on Garlock’s settlement practices and results… It appears certain that more extensive discovery would show more extensive abuse.”
Earlier this year, Belluck & Fox moved for a protective order against Garlock’s request for even more information on 157 of its clients’ claims.
In the Waters & Kraus case, Garlock is seeking information on approximately 300 asbestos claimants from 25 firms.
Those firms are: Deluca & Nemeroff; Belluck & Fox; Bergman Draper Ladenburg Hart; Brayton Purcell; Byrd & Associates; Coady and Associates; Connelly Law Offices; Cooney & Conway; Cubbon & Associates; Doran & Murphy; G. Patterson Keahey; Kazan, McClain Satterley & Greenwood; Keyes Law Firm; Landry & Swarr; Kaiser Gornick; Locks Law Firm; McArdle Law Office; Robert Peirce & Associates; Shein Law Center; Sieben Pol Law Firm; Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Mutnick; Law Offices of Michael P. Joyce; Willliams Kherker; Williams O’Leary; and Worthingon & Caron.
The Belluck & Fox subpoenas were issued to Baron & Budd; Cooper, Hart, Leggiero & Whitehead; Lipman Law Firm; and Waters & Kraus.
http://legalnewsline.com/stories/510640956-garlock-seeking-info-from-asbestos-firms-to-boost-racketeering-claims
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Jury awards $8.75 million in asbestos lawsuit
Jun 4, 2016 | Associated Press
By Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A jury has awarded $8.75 million to a 65-year-old man who has incurable cancer as a result of asbestos exposure in the 1970s.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that David Hoff’s attorneys say the former construction worker’s mesothelioma was caused by a wallboard product that became airborne when it was sanded down.
Hoff is expected to live another year and a half.
Hoff and his wife sued Kaiser Gypsum, the manufacturer that says it stopped making the product in 1975.
Evidence at trial showed the company knew the dangers as early as 1965.
The Mesothelioma Center says about 2 to 10 percent of people exposed to asbestos will get mesothelioma.
Jurors awarded $750,000 for medical expenses, $4 million for pain and suffering, and $4 million for Hoff’s wife Patricia.
http://koin.com/2016/06/04/jury-awards-8-75-million-in-asbestos-lawsuit/
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Knox County settles asbestos lawsuit with widow of late teacher
Apr 12, 2016 | Knoxville Sentinel
By Megan Boehnke
Knox County has reached a "tentative settlement" with the widow of a former South-Doyle High School teacher who died from mesothelioma, officials said Tuesday.
David Sanders, deputy law director for the county, declined to comment further on the settlement with the family of Mike LaSorsa, including the amount of that settlement, until the deal is finalized. The case had been scheduled for a trial in Knox County Circuit Court at 9 a.m.
Mesothelioma is a form of cancer linked to asbetos exposure.
The settlement comes less than a week after the school system confirmed the presence of asbestos in roof decking of the South-Doyle's library complex. The school closed the library, sent notices to parents and held a meeting Monday evening to answer questions.
Knox County officials said they have no plans to inspect additional schools for asbestos. As part of federal regulations, the schools' maintenance staff inspects areas known to contain asbestos every three years, using surveys conducted by an engineering firm in 1990.
But the spray-coating containing asbestos found on the roof deck at South-Doyle High on March 26 had never been documented before, school officials said Monday.
"That was an oversight on (the engineering firm's) part — that's the only explanation for it," said Rob Riley, supervisor of environmental services for Knox County Schools, following the meeting.
"I deal with the reports all the time, and we don't find any egregious errors like that. I'm hoping its one in a hundred."
Riley had been inspecting pipe insulation in a classroom inside the library as part of the LaSorsa lawsuit when the suspicious spray insulation was discovered.
"Part of the reason why we identified this material is because when you're in litigation and things like that, you go and check the physical structure of where allegations were made and things like that," Schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre told parents.
LaSorsa, a former South-Doyle teacher and onetime University of Tennessee football player, sued the school before he died in 2011 from mesothelioma.
In a deposition filed in Knox County Circuit Court, LaSorsa described seeing particles falling from "big old pipes all wrapped in this white stuff" falling from the ceiling while working at South-Doyle between 1991 and 1997.
"I kept rags there for the kids to dust off their desks," he said during the November 2011 deposition, about a month before his death.
The material tested at South-Doyle was not pipe insulation described by LaSorsa, but a spray coating that is considered friable — meaning it crumbles easily — by nature, Riley said.
In the deposition, LaSorsa similarly describes sweeping up debris from pipe insulation two to three times a day while working at Fulton High School between 1968 and 1982. "I didn't realize later — until later that maybe that might have been asbestos," he said in the deposition. "I didn't know that."
Fulton was part of the Knoxville city school system at the time, and the LaSorsa family has already settled his suit with the city. A bench trial is scheduled to begin 9 a.m. Tuesday in the family's lawsuit against Knox County.
Asbestos is elsewhere in South-Doyle High School, as well as in other schools in the system — much of it in floor tiles, and none of it considered friable at this point, McIntyre told parents.
"The reason we're talking about this, is because it's the sort of spray-on insulation material and that's — the possibility of that becoming … loose and coming into the air is potentially greater than if it's contained in floor tile," McIntyre said during Monday's meeting. "That's why this is a bit more urgent and why we made a more immediate decision around it."
The school will have the material removed immediately after the school year concludes in May. It will cost about $250,000, and school officials said they will do follow up air tests to ensure none of the material remains.
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