Articles Posted in Asbestos Injury

Tennessee workers and workers all over the United States expect that when they go to work they will be treated with respect and also have a safe and clean environment to work in. However, many companies and businesses expose their employees to asbestos which can lead to serious medical conditions including the cancer Mesothelioma. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with Mesothelioma or another serious illness after being exposed to asbestos, then you should speak with a Tennessee asbestos and personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. They will work with you to make sure you get the compensation you deserve.

According to this lawsuit, Gerald Failing worked in the compound department at Durez Plastics since 1996. Durez Plastics produced industrial resins and phenolic molding compounds. As part of his job in the compound department Failing worked in and around raw asbestos fibers in order to make plastic molding compounds which were a base material for the company’s products. Some of the raw asbestos that Failing worked with was given to the company by Hedman Resources Ltd, a mining company out of Canada. As a result of working around this raw asbestos, Failing who is sixty-six was diagnosed with Mesothelioma in 2010. The jury in this case is holding Hedman Resources Ltd completely responsible for damages for causing Failing’s injuries and illness. They jury also discovered that Hedman actions were reckless and disregarded the safety of the workers and others. Failing and his wife were awarded a $2 million dollar verdict.
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In Tennessee and all across the country, people that are exposed to asbestos over a long period of time can develop serious injuries or Mesothelioma, a cancer that can attack the bodies’ internal organs. If you or someone you love has developed a serious injury or illness such as Mesothelioma or asbestosis due to long term exposure to asbestos, then you should talk to a Tennessee asbestos lawyer right away. They will hear your case and make sure that you receive the compensation you deserve for your serious injury or illness.

In this case, Judge Eddie Bowen was removed from a major asbestos case in which he award $322 million to the asbestos victim. The judge was removed after one of the defendants in the case claimed that Bowen should have never presided over the case due to his family’s history with asbestos. According to the defendant, Bowen’s father suffers from asbestosis as well and has filed two asbestos lawsuits, one which is still pending.

The state Supreme Court determined that these reasons justified removing Judge Bowen from the case. The $322 million asbestos verdict is the largest ever given in an asbestos lawsuit, according to the defendant.
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In Tennessee and all across the United States, when people go into work they expect their work environment to be a clean and safe environment for them to work in. However, this is not always the case. Some workplaces have their employees working around and breathing in dangerous substances such as asbestos which can lead to serious health problems and cancer. If you or someone you love has been exposed to asbestos while at your work place and then been diagnosed with cancer because of it, you should speak to a Tennessee asbestos lawyer right away. They will hear your case and work with you to make sure you get the compensation you need.

In this case, Leopold Granier Jr., was exposed to asbestos and diagnosed with mesothelioma because of the negligence of Avondale Shipyards, Cajun Insulation and Union Carbide Corp. As well as awarding Granier 1.5 million in general damages, the jury also found that Avondale Shipyards, Cajun Insulation and Union Carbide Corp., were truly liable and that the products in their possession were found to be a “substantial and contributing cause” of Granier’s diagnoses.

The jury found Union Carbide Corporation especially liable because asbestos materials were integrated into the company’s plant where Granier worked and contributed to his cancer.
As well as the awarded 1.5 million in general damages, Granier also was awarded $104,160.77 in special damages. Avondale, which was acquired by Northrop Grumman Corp, is scheduled to close in 2013. The Corporation announced this decision due to the Navy’s reduced order of new warships from the company. The shipyard was once the largest employer in the state and had more than two thousand employees.
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In Tennessee and all across the country when we go to work, we expect to work in a safe, healthy, and respectful environment. Unfortunately, many times this is not the case for many workers across the country and even in Tennessee. If you feel that your work has exposed you to dangerous chemicals such as asbestos or just to a dangerous environment and you have suffered an illness or injury because of it, then you should speak with a Tennessee asbestos injury lawyer right away. They will hear your case and make sure you get the compensation you deserve.

In this case, James Ginter filed a lawsuit against Ford Motor because he used a friction assessment screening test machine when he worked at Durez Plastics in 1980. This machine was produced by Ford and Ginter claims the machine caused him to be exposed to asbestos which led to him being diagnosed with mesothelioma. Ginter used this machine to grind down experimental materials in order to test their viability as brakes. Several of these materials had asbestos. According to the lawsuit, the machine that Ginter worked with had no warning labels that it was producing asbestos even though Ford had a history of fatalities caused by their workers being exposed to asbestos since the 1970s.

The mesothelioma that Ginter was diagnosed with is a rare type of cancer found in the chest and lungs which is only known to be caused by exposure to asbestos. The cancer can go undiagnosed for several years after being exposed to asbestos causing people with the disease to often have a shorter life expectancy after being diagnosed. The Supreme Court in this case awarded 2.5 million in damages to Ginter for his mesothelioma diagnoses and found Ford was fifteen percent responsible for Ginter exposure to the asbestos. The rest of the damages were found to be other companies’ responsibilities.
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In Tennessee and all across the United States, residents as well as workers deserve to go into public buildings or places of business without the risk of being exposed to harmful chemicals and substances that may cause them health problems later on in life. Unfortunately, many workers and people inhale fumes from asbestos and other dangerous chemicals all too often. If you are a worker or a person that may have been exposed to asbestos or another harmful chemical while working or visiting a public place, then you should speak with a Tennessee dangerous product and personal injury lawyer right away. They will hear your case and work with you to make sure you get the compensation you deserve.

In this case, Thomas C. Brown claimed to have inhaled asbestos while mixing drilling mud that was sold and manufactured by Chevron Phillips Chemical Company and Union Carbide Corporation. When Brown was sixteen he started going into the oil field from 1979 to the mid-80s and mixed an asbestos drilling additive only to be diagnosed thirty years later with asbestosis and require oxygen twenty-four hours a day.

According to the lawsuit, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company and Union Carbide Corporation knew that asbestos could cause cancer and lung disease, however, they continued to market their almost one hundred percent asbestos products long after they had become aware of the dangers. The jury found the company liable for defectively designing their products and for failing to provide an adequate warning to their workers. The jury awarded Brown $300 million in punitive damages and another $22 million in actual damages.

The company stated, “The credible medical evidence introduced at trial clearly demonstrates that, while Mr. Brown suffers from shortness of breath, such condition is not attributable to asbestos exposure,” about the lawsuit’s verdict.
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The Smithsonian settled an asbestos lawsuit with a former employee for $233,000 and health insurance after the museum’s worker was diagnosed last year with asbestosis. The employee, Richard Pullman, 54, worked for 28 years at the museum, installing exhibits. This required drilling and sawing interior walls containing asbestos, a risk Pullman and other workers were first made aware of in 2008.

A Smithsonian spokeswoman has said that the settlement is not an admission of guilt, an odd statement given that Mr. Pullman has worked the majority of his life at the National Air and Space Museum and that inhaling asbestos, speaking realistically, the only cause of asbestosis.

Initially, Mr. Pullman was denied a worker’s compensation coverage claim for asbestosis, though he would win on appeal. He is now allowed worker’s compensation for treatment of asbestosis-related injury and benefits if he becomes disabled or dies from the disease.
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KBR, formerly Kellogg, Brown, and Root and previously a subsidiary of Halliburton, faces injury lawsuits filed by both military and civilian personnel for burning toxic waste, including asbestos, as a cost-saving means of avoiding proper toxic waste disposal. Since 2003, toxic waste was burned in open-air burn pits that produced thick palls of chemically fetid smoke that, according to the class action lawsuit, endangered or caused long-lasting health problems in a minimum of 100,000 people. (See last month’s TN Injury Law Blog asbestos posting for a local lawsuit involving asbestos exposure through illegal disposal.)

Injuries from the illegal burning include chronic asthma, kidney disease, and cancer. Though various toxic chemicals were burned, including lithium batteries, human corpses, paints and solvents, medical supplies, and plastic water bottles, perhaps most alarming in my view as an asbestos lawyer was the quantities of asbestos insulation thrown into the pyres and reports of lung injury. Burning plastic releases dioxins, a known carcinogen. Asbestos inhalation, of course, is a major cause of mesothelioma.

Also alarming is the report that the burn pits are still in operation at Joint Base Balad (formerly Balad Air Base), the largest base in Iraq.

These KBR-operated burn pits were frequently located near soldiers’ and contractors’ quarters and were so thick that visibility through the multi-colored smoke was reduced to only a few meters. Smoke was so bad in some instances that it interfered with our troops’ military mission, compromising base security.
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Last week, a Chattanooga businessman pleaded guilty in federal court on charges of conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act, an offense punishable by up to $250,000 fine and five-year prison sentence. The crime: improper disposal of asbestos. The culprit: Standard Coosa-Thatcher Co.’s Chattanooga, Tennessee mill.

Yes, asbestos is still with us, as are its fibers’ dangerous health effects.

Just last month, Tennesseans Doug and Donna Satterfield won the judgment of the Tennessee Supreme Court after a long series of asbestos court battles against the aluminum manufacturer Alcoa. The Satterfields claim workplace asbestos took the life of their daughter by mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer. Alcoa apparently avoided OSHA regulations by allowing employees exposed to asbestos to take home their exposed work clothes and, according to the lawsuit, Alcoa employees were never told they were working with asbestos. It wasn’t until years later when his daughter at age 23 was dying of the rare asbestos cancer was that Mr. Satterfield realized he’d exposed his newborn daughter’s delicate lungs and digestive system to asbestos whenever he rocked her in his arms after work.

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