Mesothelioma Lawyers Blog

According to a recent news article from the National Law Review, the court of appeals in New York has ruled on a defendant’s duty to warn a potential plaintiff of the dangers of asbestos exposure.  Specially, the question is whether the manufacturer of a non-asbestos product has a duty to warn others of the dangers of asbestos exposure because their product contains a third-party’s part, and that part contains asbestos.

While this seems rather complex, it makes more sense when we take a look at some of the facts of the case.  In that case, plaintiff worked on boilers as a technician for the United States Navy for all of the 1960s and most of the 1970s.  In his complaint, plaintiff alleged that he was exposed to deadly asbestos fibers as result of working around insulation on high heat steam valves on the boilers on which he worked.  He was suing, among others, the company that manufactured these valves.  Continue reading

Certain parts of the country have been ravaged by years of unregulated industry, and the asbestos industry was responsible for much of this environmental destruction.  To help clean up these toxic waste zones, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the power to use money provided by Congress to create what are known as EPA superfunds.

One such fund is the Suburbs of Philadelphia as discussed in a recent news feature from E&E Publishing.  Most people are aware the United States was for many years the world’s largest producer of asbestos and asbestos products.

For many years, Philadelphia housed one of the world’s largest asbestos factories.  The factory, which started as a boiler plant (boilers used asbestos insulation for many years), still has hundred foot mountains of asbestos and manufacturing waste that surround the area and look like salt and gravel piles we typically see on the side of a highway covered with large domes. Continue reading

In Scapa Dryer Fabrics, Inc. v. Knight, a case from the Supreme Court of Georgia, defendant was a textile maker that produced a product known as dryer felts.  These are the felt liners that are placed on the doors or door opening of clothes dryers to keep the heat inside the machine when they are operating. They made these dryer felts during the 1970s at one of their factories.

According to court documents, plaintiff worked at this factory from the late 1960s through the early to mid 1970s, and this factory contained boilers and pipes that were lined with asbestos insulation.  Asbestos yarn was also used in the manufacture of some of its products, including the dyer felt. Continue reading

Most people have heard of Warren Zevon, or at the very least heard some of his songs. Some of his more famous songs included “Werewolves of London,” “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” and, “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.”  Many are aware that he died in 2003 from cancer, but it is not well known that he died of mesothelioma. He was only 58 years old when he died of malignant mesothelioma.  His death also occurred a time in his life when he had decided to give up most his bad habits and live a healthy life. His son said he was living healthy and even taking dancing lessons when he first noticed the symptoms that would ultimately lead to his diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma.

These days, Zevon’s son is taking up the fight to make people aware of the deadly disease of mesothelioma and raise money to find a cure.  There are treatments, but they basically require very invasive surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and, even in the best case scenario, will normally only extend a patient’s life for a short period of time, but there is nothing close to the success rate we see with the treatment of other types of cancer. Continue reading