Location of Asbestos

The asbestos time bomb is ticking in several U.S. cities and states! Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Beltsville, Maryland; Dearborn, Michigan; Easthampton, Massachusetts; Trenton, Edgewater, New Jersey; Newcastle and Ellwood City, Pasadena; Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona; Honolulu, Hawaii; Marysville, Ohio; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Newark, New Orleans and Los Angeles, Santa Ana, California; Minot, North Dakota; Omaha, Nebraska; Portland, Oregon; St. Louis , Missouri; Tampa, Florida; Weedsport, New York; West Chicago, Illinois; Wilder, Kentucky; and in Spokane, Washington. These places in the U.S. share a common factor - the presence of vermiculite mines or asbestos processing plants. The focus on these states has risen from the number of litigation Cases filed against the mining or processing companies dealing directly or indirectly with asbestos.

In other parts of the globe, the asbestos alarm has been raised in Europe, Australia, Japan, South Africa, and Canada. This harmless looking mineral has unleashed its lethal poison and claimed thousands of lives since the upsurge of the industrial revolution. It was only in the 1920s that strong evidence was collected to cite that asbestos was highly toxic and has caused various kinds of respiratory diseases. In the 1930s, the cancer mesothelioma became associated with asbestos. As people succumbed to the disease, there was little information or protective gears or even warning issued to the public. The fact that mesothelioma cancer develops only after 15 or 25 years after continued human exposure perhaps slowed down the government's response. A careful study had to be undertaken to make sure that all facts would be accurate before any protective measures were taken.

An asbestos lawsuit is filed a family member with a relative who has developed mesothelioma and has already passed away; or it can be filed by a person has unwittingly developed the disease through a close contact with a person exposed to the asbestos. The compensation could be millions of dollars for victims of mesothelioma who have been exposed to asbestos. There has been a record of 730,000 individuals who have been exposed to asbestos and some 8,400 companies have been sued. The sheer bulk of litigation has caused the defendants and insurers to spend 70 billion dollars.

There have been some 10,462 defendants in asbestos litigation. Many of these litigations are in Libby, Montana; Marysville, Washington; Monroe, Louisiana; and Denver, Colorado.

The sad plight of Don Kaedin is a Case in point. Don, who died from asbestosis, said that his superiors did not inform him that he was being exposed to a highly toxic material and further failed to give him any precautionary gear to prevent contamination. Don Kaedin suffered scarring of his lungs which made it difficult to breathe. He died after so much pain and misery because of the neglect of his company.

The presence of the nearby vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana has raised concerns that this may have contributed to the unusual mortality. However it was clarified that vermiculite is not by itself toxic because it does not contain asbestos. It was the geological formation within the area that exposed the presence of asbestos in the mine. The mine has long been closed since the 1990s but the

!: Information Mesothelioma Center