NORTH AMERICAN REFRACTORIES COMPANY

Asbestos in U.S. steel products proved to be a double-edged sword for unsuspecting factory workers

NORTH AMERICAN REFRACTORIES

June 1, 2010 - North American Refractories Company (NARCO) provides heat-resistant ceramic refractory products for applications in the North American steel industry. For decades, NARCO’s refractory products have contained some amount of asbestos, recognized too late by the American worker as a fatal cancer-causing agent.

The amount of asbestos found in products produced by North American Refractories was enormous because it was inexpensive to use, readily available and a good insulator against steel plant temperatures, heat friction caused by heavy machinery and, of course, the outbreak of accidental fires.

But asbestos is a double-edged sword. Despite the few lives it has saved through these properties, asbestos has killed a much greater number of unsuspecting workers, many of whom had put their trust in their employers and given them their best years only to be rewarded with a death sentence in the form of a fatal asbestos-related disease, like mesothelioma.

Asbestos claims filed by thousands of workers, against asbestos companies like North American Refractories, maintain that certain employers and product manufacturers knew about the dangers of asbestos, but failed to find suitable substitutes or supply their workers with respirators that may have prevented the inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers at the work site.

In 2002, a tsunami of asbestos-injury lawsuits filed against North American Refractories Company forced the company to seek Chapter 11 protection against creditors under the U.S. bankruptcy code.

In 2007, a bankruptcy court judge in the Western District of Pennsylvania recommended the formation of an asbestos personal injury trust to handle any unsettled or future asbestos injury claims. North American Refractories’ reorganization plan was approved and the company has since emerged from Chapter 11 protection.

Weitz & Luxenberg – Champion to the American worker

If you work in any of the North American Refractories plants in the United States, or are among one of the thousands of workers producing refractory products in this country, you may be vulnerable to an asbestos-related disease that can kill you.

The New York law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg specializes in asbestos-injury litigation and is known in the legal community for obtaining record-setting compensations for workers who have fallen ill from on-the-job asbestos exposure.

Protect your family’s financial future today. Use the communication form here to contact an asbestos cancer attorney at Weitz & Luxenberg for a free appraisal of your case and to determine your eligibility to receive financial compensation.