Mesothelioma at Alcoa in Newburgh, IN (Podcast)

In this podcast, John Maher talks with Attorney Paul Kelley about Mesothelioma and other Asbestos related issues that people face. Many people who worked at or around an Alcoa facility in Newburgh, IN have been victims of these conditions and need to know about their legal options.

John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher and I’m here today with Paul Kelley. Paul is a partner with the Kentucky personal injury law firm, Satterley & Kelley, which has over 45 years of collective experience in litigating mesothelioma and asbestos claims. Today we’re talking about mesothelioma at Alcoa in Newburgh, Indiana. Welcome, Paul.

Paul Kelley: Good morning, John. How are you doing today?

John: I’m doing good, thanks. How are you?

Paul: Doing well, thank you.

What is Alcoa in Indiana?

John: So Paul, tell us a little bit about Alcoa in Indiana and what they do.

Paul: So, Alcoa is a aluminum steel producing plant. It has a smelting operation as well as a rolling mill. The smelting operation is for them to take the raw ore, heat it up, and extract it, basically into the beginning of a finished product. Metal, iron, steel, something along those lines, usually made in the form of an ingot, which is going to vary in size from small to very large.

The rolling mill operation is where they take those ingots and they essentially flatten those pieces into some sort of size so that they can produce something else with it later on, or a customer can produce something with it later on. The Alcoa facility was a massive plant. It was built in 1960. I think that has operated in some form for 60 years. Employed thousands of people over the years. Had dozens of types of crafts that worked in there. Had hundreds of contractors that worked in the facility at one point or another. It was a big plant and it produced a lot of product for a lot of years supporting the area that I’m in. Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois provided steel and aluminum all throughout the country.

How was Alcoa Related to Asbestos and Mesothelioma Cancer Cases?

John: Okay. And so how was Alcoa related to asbestos and mesothelioma cancer cases?

Paul: Well, unfortunately, given the time period that Alcoa was built, the facility went up around 1960. That is a classic period of time that plants were built with asbestos containing materials. The predominant things that we would see would be thermal insulation that was used throughout the plant. Steam was used to power equipment and machinery. We’ll talk about it at another time, but there was a powerhouse next door that provided power to the Alcoa facility. Those power was provided through steam turbines and steam boilers, and the piping that was connected between the two plants were all insulated with asbestos.

Many of the machines, the rolling mills, the smelters had piping connected to them that were insulated with asbestos. They had something in the smelting area. They had something called potlines, and the potlines were the areas where the steel and aluminum was smelted, and each potline had many, many different pots. The pots were substantial in size. Many, many inches in diameter, and the potlines were insulated with refractory material and other thermal insulation that all contain asbestos during this period of time.

There was something there called hot tops that were put over these pots and the hot tops were intended to capture metal impurities that would be produced during the smelting process and hot tops contained asbestos. The pipes were connected frequently with gaskets and the gaskets for a long period of time contained asbestos. The plant had pumps and valves all throughout. Valves that are controlling the flow of steam and water and chemicals from various pipes to various pieces of equipment. The valves frequently were stuffed with asbestos-containing packing material. It was just a fibrous material that frequently came in sheets or rolls, and it was shoved into the valves. Pumps. The pumps were there to operate a lot of the machines. Connected to pipes, connected to valves, connected to machines, and lots of the pumps that had asbestos-containing packing in them as well.

You would have asbestos-containing floor tiles, ceiling tile in offices throughout the plant. So many pieces of equipment had to be insulated. Ovens. They had lots of ovens that were there and the ovens had firebrick and refractory material. They contained asbestos, just a wide variety of things. It was pretty common for that period of time that this plant was built in an operation, but certainly there was a lot of it that was there. And a lot of people that have either worked directly for Alcoa or who worked for contractors that worked in the plant have been exposed to asbestos frequently, again, over the last 50, 60, 70 years.

When Were Alcoa Employees Exposed to Asbestos?

John: Right. So how and when were the employees at Alcoa exposed to asbestos? It sounds like it could have been almost anybody who worked at that facility given the wide range of different places where asbestos was found.

Paul: Absolutely, John. So first, you had the people that helped build the plant, and again, the facility came online in 1960, so it was going to be built in the late fifties. They had several renovations and additions, but the people that built. You had insulators that insulated the pipes and the equipment. You had electricians that worked all throughout the plant, connecting wires and equipment together. Lots of times, I forgot to mention, that a lot of electric wires and cables contained asbestos insulation, so electricians were exposed.

Millwrights. Millwrights were heavily involved in the construction of power houses. Those potlines that we talked about. Millwrights typically installed the pots into the potlines and then the insulators came along and insulated the insides of the potlines. And so millwrights were exposed. Pipe fitters were exposed, pipe fitters connected and installed all of the piping. They were the ones that dealt with the gaskets. If they weren’t the ones that insulated the pipes, they were certainly present when the pipes were insulated. So certainly anybody that was involved in the construction process.

Then, you’ve got the people who were required to maintain the facility. It’s a huge plant and they had a very substantial maintenance staff for most of their existence, and all the maintenance folks who worked on pipes and worked on equipment installed gaskets, took out gaskets, removed piping, replaced piping. They had to take insulation off, they had to reinstall insulation.

They were present for the reinstallation of insulation. And so anybody that certainly worked in the maintenance aspect. These plants have to be updated, from time to time, and so there would be various crafts that we come in. So all the same types of crafts that participate in the construction of the plant also came in at various points in time to update and renovate.

We’ve had engineers who worked in the plant who participate in designing certain features, and then they were diagnosed with asbestos diseases many years down the road. Anybody that was involved in supervisory positions, so they didn’t necessarily deal with any of the asbestos products hands-on, but they were present frequently when all of that work happened, and so they were exposed.

We would see companies who would send people in to oversee some of the installation of things like the potlines and the furnaces and ovens and things like that, and then they were exposed during those processes. So you led us off the right way. If you worked in that plant from the 1960s to 1980s, even for a brief period of time, there is a strong likelihood that you were exposed to asbestos from whatever you did. The degree of exposure is certainly going to be dependent on the type of work that you did, with people like the millwrights and electricians, pipefitters, insulators. They certainly were going to have the heaviest exposures, but if you were in that plant for any appreciable period of time, there was virtually no way to avoid being exposed to injurious levels of asbestos.

What Should You Do if You were Diagnosed with Mesothelioma?

John: Okay. So then if you were an employee of Alcoa and now you have mesothelioma or asbestosis or another asbestos related disease, what should you do?

Paul: Well, most of the people that we talk to, John, have a disease called mesothelioma. It’s uniquely associated with asbestos exposure and unfortunately, there’s no cure for it. It’s a fatal disease. Most people are going to die from that disease within 6 to 18 months from diagnosis. It’s a devastating diagnosis, and there’s a lot of things that people have to deal with when it occurs.

Obviously, the most important aspect of anybody’s life when that occurs is what medical treatment are you going to receive? What’s the best approach for you and your family? Age has an impact, overall health condition has an impact, geography has an impact, where you are. Sometimes you have different options depending on where you are in the country. So certainly, everybody who’s diagnosed with this disease needs to quickly get a firm grasp on what their medical plan’s going to be. That’s usually something that is dealt with in conjunction with your family, your treating physicians, which will be a team of folks, from surgeons to family practitioners, pulmonologists, oncologists to radiology oncologists. And so it’s an overwhelming process and procedure.

Unfortunately, while you’re doing that, time doesn’t stand still, and there are certainly legal remedies that you have for contracting this terrible disease, particularly if you worked at a place like Alcoa, where I assure you there are parties that can be held accountable for causing you this disease. In Kentucky, and Alcoa is in Indiana, but all states have a statute of limitations. And so, the problem is while you’re trying to figure out the best approach for your medical treatment, you also have to try to figure out the best approach for how you’re going to pursue or if you’re going to pursue any claim. And so my recommendation to everybody is you need to get on it as quickly as possible and consult with an attorney to determine all of your legal rights and options that you have.

Attorneys who do this, like me, don’t generally start from scratch on a case. And so, once you speak with that attorney, the attorney can, generally speaking, give you a lot of information right away, tell you what can and can’t be done, and then they worry, worry about it. You hire me, your problem becomes my problem, and I focus on the legal aspects of it, and you focus on what you need to focus on, which is your family and your health and the things that you need to do to stay as healthy as possible.

Time is of the essence. As I said, you only have so much period of time to file your lawsuit. But even more importantly, considering or determining what your health situation is, you may have even less time than what the statute of limitations provides. And so you don’t want to waste time. And I know it’s hard and there’s so many other things that people have to deal with, but it’s really important to speak with an attorney, hire an attorney that you feel comfortable with, hire an attorney that knows what they’re doing.

You can’t really afford to hire somebody that’s never handled an asbestos mesothelioma case before. You can’t really afford to hire somebody that dabbles in this kind of litigation because this litigation isn’t for somebody that dabbles. It’s for somebody that has done it over and over and over again and knows what to do. And so my advice is to speak with an attorney immediately and hire somebody that you’re comfortable with as soon as you possibly can so that you can hit the ground running.

What is the Statute of Limitations for Asbestos Related Cases?

John: Right. Now, you mentioned the statute of limitations. What is the statute of limitations in Indiana and can you file a claim as an employee against your employer in Indiana or do you have to find other parties to go after with the claim?

Paul: Typically speaking, you can’t file a claim against your employer in Indiana. You can file a workers’ compensation claim and sometimes, very rarely, there are exceptions of that rule. However, you can sue manufacturers of products, you can sue suppliers, distributors, you can sue contractors. There’s still a wealth of parties that can be held responsible. Now, if you were not a direct Alcoa employee and you worked for one of those contractors, or sometimes we have employees or sometimes we have clients who didn’t work for the company but their husband or their spouse did. And in those circumstances you can sue Alcoa. We call them a household exposure case, so that’s always possible.

But in Indiana, the statute of limitations is two years to file a claim. And two years certainly seems like a long time, but it can go by very quickly. And even more importantly, we don’t want to get anywhere close to that statute of limitations. You have so many things that can make that time go by quickly. Memories don’t get better over the course of time. Companies, just as a matter of practice, they destroy and discard documents every so often. There are some companies that destroy them once they hear about lawsuits as well. So getting something filed as quickly as possible. But you do have a couple of years to investigate and to figure out all the parties and all the responsible entities that may be held accountable for causing your disease.

John: And is that two years from when you’re diagnosed?

Paul: Typically, two years from your diagnosis. There are exceptions of those rules that could extend that period of time. But the general rule of thumb is get it filed within two years from the date of your diagnosis and you will not have any problems. Our courts have very little discretion. If you file it beyond the two years, if the court thinks that there’s no reasonable excuse for not filing it after the two-year from diagnosis, the court has zero discretion and has to dismiss your case. So don’t get close to that to that two-year date. Talk to your lawyer immediately, and hopefully the lawyer will be able to file a lawsuit very, very quickly.

John: All right, well that’s really great information, Paul. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Paul: Thanks, John.

Get More Information About Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure Illnesses

John: And for more information about mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, visit the law firm of Satterley and Kelley at Satterleylaw.com or call 855-385-9532.