Asbestos News Roundup: 1.17.13 – Electrician Asbestos Risk

January 17th, 2013. By LucyC

This week’s asbestos news roundup includes all the recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. An ongoing list of reported asbestos hot spots in the US from the Asbestos News Roundup archive appears on our asbestos map.

Electricians, Boiler and Furnace Technicians Asbestos Disease Risk

Electricians and electrical cable installers may not know it, but they are at risk for being exposed to asbestos through repair, demolition or installation work. This lethal, fibrous material was used in felted asbestos insulation or asbestos tape to insulate wiring. So working on old power lines, old wiring or breaker boxes would put electricians at risk for asbestos exposure. Older arc chutes also contain asbestos. It was used in circuit breakers, for example, before the mid-1980′s, when they were made of asbestos-containing plastic molding compound.

Boiler technicians, sadly, are also at risk from materials in the workplace. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), insulation blankets (the outside covering or shell), door gaskets, duct insulation, and tape at duct connections of furnaces and boilers can all contain asbestos. Technicians who worked on repairing boilers and furnaces in the past would have been at risk for asbestos exposure.

Asbestos was used between 1930 and 1972 as high-temperature insulation for oil, coal, or wood furnaces, generally found in older homes. Steam and hot water pipes were insulated with asbestos-containing material, particularly at elbows, tees, and valves. Pipes may also be wrapped in an asbestos “blanket”, or asbestos paper (which looks very much like corrugated cardboard). Asbestos-containing insulation has also been used on and inside round and rectangular furnace ducts. Sometimes the duct itself may be made of asbestos-containing materials.

Asbestos Lawsuit

Charleston, WV: 124 companies have been named as defendants in an asbestos lawsuit filed by Clarence Robert Nelson and his wife Isabell S. Nelson. The Kentucky-based couple alleges the companies are responsible for Mr. Nelson’s lung injuries: Clarence Nelson has been diagnosed with asbestosis and mesothelioma, according to the lawsuit.

The defendants are also charged with failing to warn the Nelsons of the dangers of asbestos products and failing to exercise reasonable care to warn Clarence Nelson of the dangers of being exposed to asbestos-containing products. Furthermore, the lawsuit claims the defendants failed to test the asbestos-containing products in order to ascertain the dangers involved and failed to test the other ingredients of their products to ascertain the dangers involved.

As a result of the defendants’ negligence, Clarence Nelson has suffered damages from medical treatment, drugs and other unknown medical measures; great pain of body and mind; embarrassment and inconvenience; loss of earning capacity; loss of enjoyment of life; and shortening of his life expectancy, the asbestos lawsuit states.

The 124 defendants named in the suit are Air & Liquid Systems Corporation; Ajax Magnethermic Corporation; Allied Glove Corporation; American Biltrite, Inc.; Ametek, Inc.; Armstrong International, Inc.; Armstrong Pumps, Inc.; Aurora Pump Company; Baltimore Aircoil Company; Borg-Warner Corporation; Brand Insulations, Inc.; Cameron International Corporation; Carver Pump Company; Cashco, Inc.; Catalytic Construction Company; CBS Corporation; Certainteed Corporation; Chevron U.S.A., Inc.; Cleaver-Brooks, Inc.; Columbia Paint Corp.; Columbus McKinnon Corporation; Cooper Industries, Inc.; Copes-Vulcan, Inc.; Crane Company, Inc.; Crown Cork & Seal USA, Inc.; CSR, Inc.; Dana Corporation; Dezurik, Inc.; Dravo Corporation; Eaton Corporation; Eichleay Corporation; F.B. Wright Company of Pittsburgh; the Fairbanks Company; Fairmont Supply Company; Flowserve U.S., Inc. and its Byron Jackson Pump Division; Flowserve U.S., Inc., f/k/a Flowserve FSD Corporation; Flowserve U.S., Inc., f/k/a Flowserve FSD Corporation, as successor to Durco International and the Duriron Company; Flowserve U.S., Inc., f/k/a Flowserve FSD Corporation, as successor to Valtek International; Fluor Constructors International a/k/a Fluor Corporation; Fluor Constructors International, Inc.; Fluor Corporation; Fluor Enterprises, Inc.; FMC Corporation; Foster Wheeler, LLC; the Gage Company; Gardner Denver, Inc.; General Electric Company; General Refractories Company; Gentex Corporation; Georgia-Pacific Corporation; the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company; Goulds Pumps, Inc.; Greene Tweed & Co.; Grinnell, LLC; Hinchliffe & Keener, Inc.; Honeywell International, Inc.; Howden North America, Inc.; IU North America, Inc.; IMO Industries, Inc.; Inductotherm Corp.; Industrial Holdings Corporation; Industrial Rubber Products; Ingersoll-Rand Company; ITT Corporation; J.H. France Refractories Company; J-M Manufacturing Company, Inc.; Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.; Joy Technologies, Inc.; Joy Technologies, Inc. a/k/a and as successor-in-interest to Joy Mining Machinery; Lennox Industries, Inc.; Lindberg; Louden Crane Corporation; M.S. Jacobs & Associates, Inc.; Magnetek, Inc.; McJunkin Redman Corporation; Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; Minnotte Contracting Corporation; Morgan Engineering Systems, Inc.; Mueller Steam Specialty; Nagle Pumps, Inc.; Nitro Industrial Coverings, Inc.; Owens-Illinois, Inc.; P&H Mining Equipment, Inc.; Pecora Corporation; Pneumo Abex Corporation; Power Piping Company; Premier Refractories, Inc.; Reading Crane; Riley Power, Inc.; Robinson Fans, Inc.; Rockwell Automation, Inc.; Rust Engineering & Construction, Inc.; Rust International Corp.; Safety First Industries, Inc.; the Sager Corporation; Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Inc.; Schneider Electric USA, Inc.; Seco/Warwick Corporation; Spirax Sarco, Inc.; SPX Cooling Technologies, Inc.; State Electric Supply Company; Sterling Fluid Systems (USA), LLC; Sullair Corporation; Sunbeam Products, Inc.; Sundyne Corporation; Surface Combustion; SVI Corporation; Swindell-Dressler International Company; Tasco Insulation, Inc.; Textron, Inc.; Trane U.S., Inc.; UB West Virginia, Inc.; Union Carbide Corporation; Velan Valve Corporation; Viking Pump, Inc.; Vimasco Corporation; Warren Pumps, Inc.; Washington Group International; Weil McLain Company; Welco Manufacturing Company; West Virginia Electric Supply Company; the William Powell Company; Yarway Corporation; and Zurn Industries, LLC. (wvrecord.com)

Asbestos Law

Kankakee, IL: Mike Pinski, a developer from Kankakee, has been sentenced to serve six months in federal prison for his participation in illegal and unsafe removal of asbestos materials from a downtown Kankakee property in August 2009.

Pinski owned a five-story property at 197 S. West Ave. from which he arranged to have asbestos-containing material removed and dumped in a remote area of Pembroke Township—a violation of the Clean Air Act—by two men, Duane “Butch” O’Malley, and James A. Mikrut. Both O’Malley and Mikrut were previously sentenced for their roles in the offense. (dailyjournal.com)

 

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Exposure, asbestos law, asbestos lawsuit, Asbestos Mesothelioma

This was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2013 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Asbestos Mesothelioma, Emerging Issues, lawsuits . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.