The Online Asbestos, Asbestos Cancer, & Mesothelioma Authority
California (CA) Asbestos And Mesothelioma General, Medical, & Legal Resources
California (CA) Asbestos Resources & Information:
Were you aware that asbestos is the Golden State's official mineral?
Serpentine--the source of chrysotile asbestos--is found in abundance in the foothills of California's three major mountain ranges. It should come as no surprise. Major asbestos operations are located in Quebec and upstate New York, which is part of the Canadian Shield, possibly the oldest and most stable geologic formation on the planet; more often, however, asbestos is found in geologically young and active areas, such as the west coast of North America.
Where there are volcanoes and earthquakes, there is likely to be asbestos, which geologists classify as a metamorphic rock. This is certainly true of California, where serpentine is abundant.
Naturally-Occurring Asbestos Hazards
Humans have lived in California for thousands, and possibly tens of thousands of years. Indian peoples such as the Miwok of the Sierra foothills, Costanoans, and other groups in the northern part of the state walked, hunted, fished, gathered, made war and lived their lives right on top of major serpentine deposits over the centuries. However, their hunting-gathering lifestyles did not normally disturb the ground.
Early Spanish settlers engaged in farming and ranching, neither of which was likely to stir up asbestos deposits; later gold seekers worked further up into the granite of the Sierra Range.
Recently however, as the population of California has grown unabated, the demand for housing has led to the construction of housing developments in the foothills, where construction activity has exposed these serpentine deposits, leading to the release of asbestos fibers into the air. This has been happening in the community of El Dorado Hills, located on U.S. Highway 50 about 25 miles east of Sacramento.
North of the Los Angeles Basin, California's three major mountain ranges surround an immense Central Valley, known as the San Joaquin in the south and the Sacramento in the north. An examination map of California published by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry shows how the locations of serpentine deposits follow these mountain ranges quite closely.
There is also a dense cluster of asbestos deposits located in the Mojave Desert, only 50 miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Industrial and Occupational Exposures
California has also been home to many shipyards and marine repair facilities, as well as large number of other industries. There are no fewer than 25 oil refineries in California, as well as nearly 20 major shipyards and some 11 power plants and energy generation facilities. Mining and smelting operations were also located around the state.
Asbestos insulation was used extensively in the shipbuilding and marine repair industry, particularly those of the U.S. Navy. A disproportionate number of U.S. veterans who develop asbestos diseases are those who served on sea-going vessels. Such Naval shipyards were located in the Bay Area up until the late 1980s and early 90s; the San Diego Base is the Navy's largest.
This, and the state's large overall population, are the primary reasons that the large majority of California's asbestos-related deaths over the 20-year period between 1979 and 1999 were in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties, accounting for well over 25% of the total. The Bay Area counties of Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo and San Francisco made up an additional 20%.
Generally, asbestosis is more common than mesothelioma; however, in California, slightly over half of asbestos-related fatalities were due to mesothelioma. Nonetheless, when the data is broken down on a county-by-county basis, an interesting pattern emerges: asbestosis is more prevalent in lightly populated, rural counties; the more urbanized an area is, the more likely the patient was to have contracted mesothelioma.
- Cohen, Placitella & Roth. "Asbestos Related Deaths by State: California".
Accessed: 19 October 2007. - Geological Research, Analyses and Services Programs. "Naturally Occurring Asbestos Locations in the Contiguous U.S. and Alaska." Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 25 May 2007.
Accessed: 19 October 2007. - Patterson, Randall. "Not In Their Back Yard." Mother Jones, May/June 2007.
California (CA) Legal Resources: Asbestos, Asbestos Cancer & Mesothelioma
California is a state with a history of pro-victim lawsuits in mesothelioma cases, with many cases awarding both actual and punitive damages to victims of asbestos-related disease. Verdicts in these cases are often for damages to the victim in excess of $1 million (see case examples below). There are several cases where even larger amounts were awarded, such as Peterson & Peterson v. Hill for $20 million and Todak v. Foster Wheeler L.L.C. for over $33 million. Many of the victims in the state, particularly those awarded money in courts in the San Francisco Bay Area, were first exposed to asbestos while serving in the Navy.
The statute of limitations for personal injury law in California is two years with a discovery rule that states that this amount of time begins when the problem (in this case the mesothelioma) either was discovered or should have been discovered. However, the standard one-year discovery rule for wrongful death cases does not apply in asbestos cases. Additionally, in the case Hamilton v. Asbestos Corporation, Ltd., which took place in 2000, the courts ruled that victims who previously filed suit for non-fatal asbestos-related breathing disorders may file a second lawsuit if and when they are diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-caused illness. The case further specified that asbestos disease claims may be filed any time up to one year after the victim is unable to work in his or her regular occupation because of the asbestos-caused illness.
Additional case examples from California demonstrating the pro-victim stance in the state include:
1996, Mitchell v. Asbestos Corporation Limited, et al.: The plaintiff, who was first exposed to asbestos as a welder at a San Francisco shipyard and later as a merchant marine in the 1940s, sued for damages related to pleural mesothelioma. He was awarded over $950,000.
1996, Wiggins, et al. v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas, et al.: A San Francisco jury awarded over $3.8 million to the wife and children of a man who died of pleural mesothelioma as a result of being exposed to asbestos while working as a boilerman and serving in the Navy for 30 months from 1957 to 1960.
1998, Armstrong v. Asbestos Defendants: The jury awarded the plaintiff $96,500 for medical expenses, $857,546 in lost earnings, and $3,500,000 for pain and suffering.
1998, Petrini v. Mohasco Corporation: The widow of a floor mechanic who died of pleural mesothelioma resulting from exposure to asbestos at job sites was awarded just under $1 million.
1998, Wilson v. John Crane Co.: A San Francisco jury awarded over $4.5 million in damages to the plaintiff, who had developed pleural mesothelioma as the result of his exposure to asbestos during his work as a machinist.
2000, Jeanette Franklin v. USX Corporation: The plaintiff was awarded $6,500,000 for damages relating to asbestos cancer that arose after household exposure to asbestos during her childhood.
2000, Chavers v. Owens-Illinois, Inc.; Gatke Corporation: A San Francisco jury awarded over $4.6 million to a former Navy seaman afflicted with malignant mesothelioma caused by his occupational exposure to asbestos. The jury also concluded that the defendant was involved in a conspiracy dating to the 1930s in which several asbestos products manufacturers covered up facts about the dangers of their products and misrepresented the true nature of the risks the products posed to unsuspecting workers.
2000, Traverso, et al. v. Lorillard Tobacco Company: Two children of a woman who died from abdominal mesothelioma caused by her exposure to asbestos when she smoked asbestos-filtered cigarettes from 1953 to 1956 were awarded over $1 million.
2002, Todak v. Foster Wheeler L.L.C.: The plaintiffs, a Navy electrician and his wife, received $33.7 million. As a result of his occupational exposure to asbestos, the electrician had developed mesothelioma. He was awarded $22.7 million; his wife was awarded $11 million for loss of consortium.
2005, Anthony Cadlo and Maxlyn Cadlo vs. John Crane Inc. and Metalclad Insulation Corp.: A San Francisco jury awarded over $8.5 million to a former Navy machinist and engineering officer suffering from terminal pleural mesothelioma resulting from his service-related exposure to asbestos.
2005, Garcia v. Duro Dyne Corporation: A jury awarded over $1.9 million to a retired sheet metal worker who developed peritoneal mesothelioma from his job-related exposure to asbestos.
2005, Suprenant v. 20th Century Fox Corporation, et al.: The victim died from pleural mesothelioma, which she developed from exposure to asbestos brought home on her husband's clothing when she did his laundry during the years he worked as a plasterer. The case was settled for an amount in excess of $2.5 million.
2006, David Bakkie v. Union Carbide Corporation: The plaintiff, a former plastics molder suffering from mesothelioma, was awarded over $18.5 million in damages.
2006, Joseph Garza and Mary Garza v. Asbestos Corporation Limited: A jury awarded over $1.1 million to a Navy veteran suffering from asbestosis and $400,000 to his wife for the loss of his companionship. The jury, ruling that the defendant acted with malice or oppression, added another $10 million in punitive damages.
2007, Aline Ivance, Vicky Woolley, and Lindy Schluter v. Rich-Tex, Inc.: Over $868,000 was awarded to the family of a drywall taper who died of asbestosis and asbestos pleural disease.
- Statutes of Limitations. “California Statutes of Limitations”.
Accessed: 26 July 2007 - Mesothelioma Network. “Our Mesothelioma Verdicts and Settlements”
Accessed: 26 July 2007