Wisconsin (WI) Asbestos And Mesothelioma General, Medical, & Legal Resources

Wisconsin (WI) Asbestos Resources & Information:

The most notable asbestos exposure sites in the state of Wisconsin are the power plants, the paper and pulp mills, and one oil company. There are no natural deposits to speak of except on the state line with upper Michigan.

As of 2000, the state had approximately 5.3 million residents. In the 20 years preceding that census, 725 asbestosis victims died, the overwhelming majority of whom were mesothelioma patients. Most of these were in and around the state's most populous area, Milwaukee, which accounted for 144 of these deaths. Mortality rates in the state's rural counties were negligible.

Asbestos and Paper and Pulp Mills

Corporate giants Kimberly Clark and Georgia-Pacific are among Wisconsin's top 10 employers, and in fact the state is the nation's largest producer of paper products.

Like all industrial occupations, papermaking has its share of dangers. However, direct use of asbestos is not normally considered one of the job-related hazards faced by pulp mill workers.

All industrial activities in which caustic chemicals or fire poses a danger have made use of asbestos products. Asbestos may still be in any number of places in older mills, many of which have existed for decades. Primarily, this asbestos is found in pipes and conduits, which may be covered with Monokote--a type of insulation manufactured and marketed by W.R. Grace & Company and still on the market today.

Transite--a type of concrete wallboard that is impregnated with asbestos--has been used in door panels and fume hood walls. Asbestos was also used for electrical insulation, asbestos core-doors and other fire-proofing materials, as well as floor tile, paint, packing materials and heating pads.

One place in which asbestos was directly used in paper manufacture was drying felts. Not only did these felts need to be changed frequently, but were also fixed in place using asbestos cement--part of which has made paper and pulp mill workers vulnerable to asbestos exposure.
 
Power Plants

Electrical cloth, conduits and even machinery such as turbines and generators have often been covered in asbestos insulation in these facilities. The asbestos inside the machinery posed a particular danger; as this machinery was in motion, it was liable to eject millions of friable asbestos fibers into the air breathed by maintenance and repair workers.

A 2003 study in Puerto Rico revealed just how hazardous power plant occupations could be. The researchers invited employees of these plants who had been in their jobs at least 15 years prior to the study. After being interviewed about their work and medical histories, chest x-rays were taken of over 1,100 workers.

The researchers found "...prevalence of chest x-ray abnormalities consistent with asbestos-related scarring was 13% among participants with 25 or more years from onset".

Other Common Asbestos Exposures

Construction work--especially in renovation or demolition--is particularly hazardous because of the large amounts of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) that were used in building prior to 1980. The EPA and most states have very specific regulations that govern asbestos issues. Typically, older buildings must be inspected prior to starting work. If asbestos is discovered in the course of a renovation or demolition project, contractors are required by law to stop work and call on qualified asbestos abatement personnel.

Services from trained and licensed asbestos abatement contractors can be expensive. However, consider that those who have been found guilty of code violations have been assessed fines ranging from $200,000 to half a million dollars. By comparison, fees charged by asbestos contractors--generally about 10% of that amount--are quite the bargain.

Wisconsin (WI) Legal Resources: Asbestos, Asbestos Cancer & Mesothelioma

A search through the Wisconsin Federal District Court Cases for asbestos-related personal injury product liability lawsuits brings up a list of seven lawsuits from 2006 and 2007. In three of these cases, the defendant is Dyngey. In the other cases, the defendants are Owens-Corning Corp., Acands, Inc., American Optical Corporation and International Paper Company.

Wisconsin is considered to have a high rate of asbestos exposure. According to Environmental Working Group at least 716 Wisconsin residents have died from asbestos exposure since 1979, with more than 100 in Milwaukee County. In fact, the state ranks 16 for disease related to asbestos exposure.
 
A key Wisconsin case was the 2002 case of Anderson v. Combustion Engineering, Inc. The case involved a machinist whose job site was close to a boiler at the Oak Creek Power Plant manufactured by Combustion Engineering. His work exposed him to asbestos over a period of many years. The man died from malignant mesothelioma in 1998, and his widow named Combustion Engineering and other defendants in a wrongful death suit. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed the eventual pro-victim judgment. The jury in the lower court case found the defendant 29 percent responsible for the lung cancer that killed the machinist. The appeals court rejected the defense's claim that there was not enough expert evidence to connect the asbestos in the boilers to the deceased's cancer. Under Wisconsin law, however, it is acceptable for juries to draw reasonable inferences from expert testimony even if it appears that the jury's conclusions based on those inferences would require proof by more specialized expert testimony. The court of appeals also rejected the defendant's claim that the plaintiff was obligated to present some sort of diary of activities and exposures to asbestos. Finally, the higher court rules that the defense failed to the supply solid arguments as to its belief that the jury was wrong to assess its liability at 29 percent.

Another key case in Wisconsin involved the estate of Barbara Clarke, which brought suit against 44 corporations for over $700,000. The case stemmed from the fact that Clarke was alleged to have suffered asbestos exposure in her place of employment between 1961 and 1965. The estate also alleged that Clarke was exposed to the carcinogen while completing home renovations and car work. The defendants included John Crane, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors. They were accused of using asbestos in their products in spite of knowing about its harmful effects and about the availability of safer alternatives, not providing warnings to people working around or with asbestos, and failing to perform testing to determine the extent of asbestos hazards to workers.

Those interested in filing lawsuits should know that the statute of limitations for personal injury law in Wisconsin is three 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. Wrongful death cases follow the same statute of limitations and discovery rule. There is no special statute for asbestos cases in Wisconsin.

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