ASBESTOS PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS

Government agencies regulate the uses and the disposal of asbestos-based materials, according to law

Asbestos is no longer mined in the United States, but it is still imported and used in the construction and automobile industries. While some 60 countries have totally banned its use, the United States is not one of them. Recent bills to completely ban its use have been abandoned on the floor of Congress thanks to the strong lobbying efforts of asbestos product manufacturers.

July 29, 2010 – Asbestos product manufacturers are part of a shrinking U.S. industry. In 1986, Congress passed the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) in conjunction with other federal asbestos laws to help regulate the use of asbestos in certain consumer products.

Before AHERA and the involvement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), workers in high-risk industries were simply uninformed about the asbestos-related health hazards they faced on the job, and often went about their business without any warnings from asbestos product manufacturers, nor their employers.

Such negligence caused thousands of cases of occupational asbestos exposure and asbestos-related deaths among workers in the construction, automotive and shipbuilding industries, to name a few. Automotive asbestos exposure is still a health hazard for garage mechanics and do-it-yourself automobile enthusiasts, even today.

Asbestos product manufacturers intrude home market

Besides asbestos-tainted products that threaten work-site safety, U.S. asbestos product manufacturers also produced hundreds of household products containing asbestos, including hair dryers, electric blankets, asbestos wallboard, attic insulation, pipe wrap insulation, fake fireplace logs and a hundred others.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is responsible for protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with thousands of types of consumer products, including household products manufactured by the nation’s asbestos product manufacturers.

Some of these household products were banned by the CPSC. Many were not.

The most notorious asbestos product that was not banned by the CPSC is vermiculite asbestos attic insulation from the vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana. Vermiculite is contaminated with one of the most potent forms of asbestos, tremolite, and was shipped around the country to be processed into attic insulation and other products through 1992.

The U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA) estimates that 30 million homes have asbestos vermiculite attic insulation made at processing plants all across the country. When this material is disturbed during home renovation projects, toxic fibers can become airborne, creating ripe conditions for household asbestos exposure.

Whether it’s a work-site, a household or an outdoor exposure, all types of asbestos exposure are known to cause fatal, excruciating diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Legal options for compensation

For mesothelioma legal support, contact Weitz & Luxenberg via the form at left

We have successfully represented thousands of asbestos-injured workers and home owners against employers who failed to provide safe working conditions, and asbestos product manufacturers who neglected to warn consumers about the dangers of this long misunderstood mineral.

Some things government authorities do understand, and those are that asbestos kills approximately 10,000 people in the United States and 90,000 worldwide every year.

If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestosis, please contact Weitz & Luxenberg through the communication form at left for a free case review. Our firm has long been recognized for obtaining record-setting verdicts and settlements in asbestos-injury cases.