Dangers underground: the hazardous business of asbestos mines
There were, at one time, 331 asbestos mines in just the Eastern part of the United States. These mines peppered the states from Main all the way down to Florida. Nearly every state along the way contained at least one asbestos mine (Pubs.usgs.gov).
You know the feeling of a hard day of manual labor. Perhaps you worked in the mine like your father did. Maybe it was your uncle that would come home dusty from toiling away underground. What your employer neglected to tell you, or your father, or your uncle was that even one fiber of the asbestos dust – so small that 20,000 could fit on the nose of Lincoln’s portrait on a penny – you breathed in every day can cause fatal and aggressive diseases (ADAO).
Weitz & Luxenberg can help you bring justice to the companies responsible for your illness. Whether you developed mesothelioma cancer, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer from working in an asbestos mine, compensation is available. Contact Weitz & Luxenberg for more information.
Mt. Belvidere, Vermont: the first US asbestos mine
In 1899, chrysotile asbestos deposits were discovered on a mountain in Vermont. Mt. Belvidere was found to contain tons of raw asbestos that stretched from the area of Lowell to Eden. The New England Asbestos Mining and Milling Company was the first to break ground in Eden.
“The Eden-Belvidere Mountain mines were producing almost all of the asbestos in the United States, and were increasing production yearly” (Wallace, 1990, 4).
In 1939, the Vermont Product Corporation (a subsidiary of the Rubberoid Company) bought the mine and continued to produce thousands of tons of asbestos-laced ore. By the 1960’s the mine was producing approximately 3500 tons daily.
In the 1970’s, as asbestos health concerns were on the rise, the EPA demanded that the owners of the mines install anti-pollution equipment to protect the population. The mines were at risk of closing and, in response to this, the employees established the Vermont Asbestos Group. The group bought 80 percent of the shares and production continued at a greatly reduced rate.
In the early 1990’s, the Environmental Working Group charged the mine was dumping carcinogenic waste into the state waters. In 1993, the mine closed. To this day, not just workers but also residents of the towns nearby the Belvidere asbestos mine continue to get sick from asbestos-related diseases. A recent study in 2008 concluded that the nearby residents have a 60 percent increased chance of developing lung cancer, and the odds of dying from asbestosis are 12 times as high (Uvm.edu).
Libby, Montana: an ongoing problem
They took an awful lot of ore off that mountain and made an awful lot of money of it. The only thing they ever told us about that dust was don’t worry about it, it washes out. A whole community was being exposed to a toxic pollutant and [W.R. Grace] decided to keep that information to themselves. Hundreds of people have died in the last two decades [in Libby] and the cause is without question…it is from exposure to [asbestos].
- Quotes taken from the documentary film Libby, Montana.
In the late 1800’s, asbestos was found on a mountain in Libby, Montana. The asbestos was mined, but in 1963, W.R. Grace bought the mine and turned it into a major source of raw asbestos for the entire country. W.R. Grace was one of Libby’s main sources of employment. The town loved Grace for coming in and taking care of their community financially. Grace mentioned nothing about the dangers of asbestos.
In 2002, Max Baucus stood before Congress and stated “Libby represents one of the grossest cases of corporate irresponsibility and down-right criminal negligence that I have ever seen.” He continued to state the fact that residents of Libby are developing mesothelioma 100 more than anywhere else in the country. 1 in every 1000 people in Libby have mesothelioma.
“More worrisome still, many folks who have been diagnosed with asbestos-related disease – some of whom are in their 30's because they were exposed to asbestos as children – are now essentially uninsurable going forward, because the costs of securing private insurance are non-economical,” said Baucus (judiciary.senate.gov).
The EPA is currently working to clean up the asbestos in Libby.
The asbestos chain: where along the chain did you become exposed?
Asbestos reached everywhere in the United States – a recent CDC report shows that individuals from every state have died from asbestos exposure (CDC). The way asbestos got from deep in the earth into nearly every home in America went as follows:
Companies such as W.R. Grace would contact a company such as The New England Asbestos Mining and Milling Company explaining that they are interested in starting an asbestos mine in a certain area. The New England Asbestos Mining and Milling Company would get to work on mining the asbestos from an area rich with it. They would send the raw ore to a manufacturing factory.
The ore would contain only about 10% asbestos so workers in the factory would need to carefully separate the asbestos from the rest of the rock. The usual method of this was called dry milling, in which the ore was crushed and then vacuumed – the asbestos was literarily sucked off the rock. Then, bits of rock and debris were filtered out of the asbestos until it was pure (Madehow.com).
Finally, after the asbestos was converted into a useable substance, it was administered into an assortment of products. These were then sold to a distributor who would distribute the asbestos-laced materials to stores and other companies all over the United States and Canada. Contractors would then purchase these products and work with them.
For example, suppose 100 miners in a mining company work for one day extracting the raw ore from the earth and then they sell it to a manufacturer like Johns-Manville. In the Johns-Manville factory, 1000 workers work for one day extracting the asbestos and make it into 10,000 different products. Those products are then sold to a distributor who sells the products to 100 different stores who employ ten people each store. Contractors then buy these products, and mold and cut them to apply to whatever assignment they are working on. The contractors install these products in homes, offices, cars, ships, and other public places all of which are occupied by thousands of people. If you suppose that this whole process takes one week, the amount of people who have been exposed to asbestos in that week is well over 1 million.
More mines, more exposure: where can you turn for help?
There are dozens of mines and mining towns in addition to Belvidere, and Libby, and your town. How many of your neighbors have had the same symptoms as you? The companies that owned the mines in these towns knew that they were poisoning the residents. There is a way to fight back. Pursing compensation through legal action does more than afford you financial stability. It also sends a message to these negligent companies that no one has the right to poison innocent people and get away with it.
Weitz & Luxenberg can help you in your pursuit of financial compensation. We have been helping individuals with asbestos-related diseases pursue compensation for over twenty years, and have secured billions of dollars in settlements for them. For more information including a free, legal consultation contact Weitz & Luxenberg by filling out the form on this page.
Sources
Pubs.usgs.gov: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1189/
Wallace, P. 1990. “Eden Asbestos Mine Among First in U.S.” News and Citizen, February 22, 1990.
Judiciary.senate.gov: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=472&wit_id=758
High Plain Films, Libby, Montana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04iyh_g9XFA
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5815a3.htm
Madehow.com: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Asbestos.html
Why there is still an asbestos mine in Canada, and why they want to expand