Asbestos and Mesothelioma at Olin Mathieson in Brandenburg, KY

In this episode, John Maher interviews Paul Kelley about the Olin Mathieson facility in Brandenburg, Kentucky, where asbestos was reportedly present throughout the plant. They discuss the types of work that may have led to exposure and the legal steps mesothelioma patients should consider as soon as possible.

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

Paul Kelley: Hey, John. How are you doing this morning?

Olin-Mathieson Plant History in Brandenburg

John: I’m doing well, thanks. Paul, tell us a little bit about Olin Mathieson and what it is that they do.

Paul: So, Olin Mathieson is a chemical company. It was formed in the early 1950s. It was a combination of a company called Olin Industries and Mathieson Chemical. It, I think, still operates. The company, Olin Mathieson, I think is still open. The particular plant that we’ll be talking about today was in an area called Brandenburg, Kentucky. It’s south of where I’m at in Louisville. And it specialized in turning natural gas into, or processed natural gas into, several organic chemicals. I think propylene or propylene oxide, ethylene oxide. So a lot of chemical processes. The plant at issue, I think, was open around 1954, in the early 1950s. And the plant, the physical structure, still exists today, but it’s operated by a different company called Monument Chemical, which purchased the plant in 2013. The period of time that we’re going to be most focused on today is going to be in the 50s through the 1980s and 1990s, and that’s when Olin Mathieson was the owner and operator of the facility.

Where Asbestos Was Present at the Olin Mathieson Facility

John: And so how was Olin Mathieson and their facility related to asbestos and mesothelioma cases?

Paul: So this particular facility, to my knowledge, asbestos was not utilized in the production process, at least not as a component of anything they made or specifically used. But this is an old facility. It’s a very significant plant that has a production area. It has offices. It has a power plant. And given the timeframe that it was built, in the 1950s, it contained asbestos and it was, quite frankly, loaded with asbestos and all kinds of different asbestos products from pipe insulation, insulating materials on your boilers from the thermal insulation to fire brick, refractory material, gaskets. There was insulation that was associated with some of the equipment that was used in the plant, typically thermal insulation.

There are valves, tons of valves. You’ve got chemicals flowing through pipes all throughout the plant. Valves frequently had what we call valve packing. It was like a gasketing material that contained asbestos. We had insulating cement that was used in the plant that was frequently on walls and covering equipment. There was something called Transite that was likely used in the facility. Transite was something that frequently was a corrugated cement material that frequently walls were made of. So there was a great deal of asbestos at that plant and it would have, probably in 2013, if somebody went into that building today, you’d probably still find asbestos in there.

How Workers May Have Been Exposed to Asbestos

John: And so when and how were the employees and people that worked at Olin Mathieson exposed to this asbestos that was in the facility?

Paul: So I would say that the main way that people were exposed would certainly be your maintenance kind of workers. A plant like that, I mean, it had to stay in operation, and it was a massive size, and things went wrong frequently. And so they would have maintenance employees that would do certain things. And we recently worked on a case for a gentleman that was involved in maintenance. And if they had a small problem with a pipe, they didn’t hire an outside contractor to come in, they had their maintenance staff, and that piping was frequently insulated with asbestos.

So the maintenance employee would tear the asbestos off, repair the pipe, replace the pipe. And sometimes, depending on the timeframe, it might have been reinsulated with asbestos or it could have been reinsulated with something else. So we certainly see a lot of maintenance people, and that would be true with the gaskets and the valves, and perhaps even the boilers.

But frequently, when significant projects had to occur, they hired outside contractors. They would hire boilermakers to perform boiler work. They would hire pipe fitters to perform major pipe projects. They would perform sheet metal workers to perform duct work and other kind of sheet metal work. Mill rights who frequently worked on all kinds of different types of equipment, tanks, things that were located throughout the plant. And so all those workers would frequently have to be involved in asbestos in some way.

If you’re a pipe fitter, frequently, just like the maintenance employees, you’re tearing asbestos insulation off of pipes. If you’re a boiler maker, lots of times they came into the plant every two or three years and they rebuilt those boilers, not the physical steel, but the things that went inside the boilers, which would be the insulation and the fire brick and the refractory and gaskets and those people would be exposed.

Lots of times your skilled laborers would have to replace valves or replace the packing in the valves and the packings would contain the asbestos. Sometimes they would have major renovation projects where they’re adding onto the plant that would require tear-out of materials and they’re tearing all of these things out.

But there were even people who just worked in the plant, that did things that had nothing to do with disturbing or working with any of the asbestos materials directly. They were involved in production, they were office workers, they were supervisors, they were warehouse employees, and they were exposed. Well, how could folks like that be exposed? It’s an old plant, and the asbestos, particularly the thermal insulation, the pipe insulation, it was located…there’d be miles of pipe in this plant. And it would carry steam, it would carry chemicals that were hot, carry gas, and a lot of these things were insulated. And over the years, those things deteriorate and the insulation deteriorates and it would fall on people, it would fall on machines, it would fall on the floor and asbestos gets in the air that way. People are trying to clean areas and they use compressed air and they blow that stuff all over the place.

Once asbestos gets into a space it’s there forever, or at least there for many, many years, unless the company hired specialty companies to come in and perform a thorough industrial hygiene cleaning of the facility. And I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve never seen that happen. I mean, maybe in the 2000s and closer to the time that we’re in now, maybe they hired companies to come in and do a real…not just take the asbestos off the pipes and the boilers and the equipment, but to actually do a thorough cleaning of the plant.

I never saw that done back in the 70s, 80s, and even into the 90s. So even what seems to be innocuous, fleeting, intermittent types of exposures turn into something bigger when the asbestos is just in the plant and it’s being moved around all day, every day. And then maybe not every day, but frequently new asbestos is introduced in the air in some way, whether it’s the result of a maintenance project or a contractor performing a project or the deterioration situation where it fell from 50, 100 feet up in the air and hit the ground and proliferated all over the place.

So your maintenance employees, your contractors and specialty workers that were specifically to have direct involvement, those were certainly the people that had the most significant exposures in a place like Olin, but I believe that people that worked there for 20, 30 years, they were frequently exposed from asbestos just being in the plant and being disturbed in some way, on some basis, and then it’s in their environment. And just through natural conditions, the asbestos gets swirled around and gets on some people’s clothes, in their breathing zone.

And what we have learned, what medical and scientific literature has told us is that it does not take a great deal of asbestos exposure to cause mesothelioma. There are reports that one day of exposure has been sufficient to cause people to develop cancer. So it’s certainly not unusual or unlikely that someone that worked in a facility that contained asbestos for 30 years gets diagnosed in their 60s or 70s, despite the fact that they had no personal interaction or involvement with any of the asbestos containing materials that were in the plant.

What Mesothelioma Patients Should Do Next

John: And so if you were an employee of Olin Mathieson and you worked at that facility, or maybe you were a contractor who was hired to come in and do some of these maintenance types of jobs, and now you have mesothelioma, what should you do? What are your next steps?

Paul: So mesothelioma is a terminal cancer. There is no known cure. From our standpoint, of course, our job is to try to help you and your family obtain compensation and justice for this cancer that is completely, entirely preventable. The biggest problem that families are facing when someone is diagnosed with cancer is the shock of being diagnosed with something terminal, which…the impact’s no less whether somebody’s 40 or whether somebody’s 80, but to deal with the emotional impact of that, to deal with how you’re going to attack the cancer. There’s a lot of different treatments that are available and you and your family would discuss that with your medical team and determine what’s the best system for you to deal with it.

But, unfortunately, time doesn’t stop for you to pursue your legal rights. And in Kentucky, we don’t have very much time. We only have a year from the date that you know or should know you have an injury and know or should know the cause of your injury. Typically, I tell folks, you need to pursue something within a year of being diagnosed, and that’s not very much time.

And we want to be able…as lawyers who represent people like this, we have a lot of goals. And goal number one is to investigate and get the case filed as quickly as possible, identify as many parties as we think that are responsible. Someone who worked at Olin Mathieson for their entire life, that may be the only way that they were exposed, the only place they were ever exposed at. But for contractors that were exposed there, they may have been exposed at a lot of different places. And so we want to be able to investigate that and identify all the ways that you could have been exposed to asbestos. Once the case is filed, then we have a singular mission, and that’s getting your deposition in.

We do the deposition as early as possible so that, if something happens to you before the case gets to trial, we’ll have your deposition on video and you can testify and tell your story, which is so important. Not only are you the best source of information of your exposure, but you’re the best source of information concerning how this cancer has impacted you.

So we’re hoping…and this frequently happens, where our clients are able to come to trial and testify at trial, but if not, we want to be able to get that deposition in so that we can have that proof and be able to provide the information to the jury. But a lot of our clients also find that process, while a little unnerving, to be somewhat therapeutic, because it gives them the opportunity to really say how this cancer impacts them. So our advice to everybody is you need to certainly investigate and undergo the medical care that you feel comfortable with.

And that could be chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgeries, radiation. It may be doing nothing under the circumstances, and that’s really important. And obviously that’s something for you and your family and your medical team, but you should pursue your legal rights and potential compensation benefits. Again, this cancer is devastating and the outcome is rarely good and medical expenses can go through the roof and people who are working have to stop working and their family members sometimes have to stop working to help care for [them], to take [them] to medical care.

So obtaining compensation is important. And in order to do that, you should move quickly, you should investigate and utilize all the resources that are out there now. 30 years ago, we didn’t have the robust internet that we have today. We didn’t have a lot of the information that’s available today. And you can find information, like what we’re doing today on this podcast, but identify lawyers who have experience doing this work, have experience in the area in which you think your case would likely be pursued, and of course, people that you feel comfortable with.

These cases…I would like to tell you that it’d be over in six months, but that’s not realistic. It could be two years, it could be three years, it could be five years, and you’re going to be in constant communication with your lawyer. And so you want somebody that, when you see their number on the phone, you’re not rolling their eyes and, gosh, you’ve got to talk to this person. Most of my clients, I consider them my very best friends for many years, and we have enduring relationships with them and their families for years to come after their case is completed.

And that’s ultimately what you want. And so I recommend to everybody to hit the ground running, attack the cancer with energy and vigor and enthusiasm and optimism, and attack your case the same way. And while no one on this planet can guarantee you terrific results, you at least give yourself the best chance you possibly can, both from a health standpoint and from a legal standpoint, and that’s what we’re here for.

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

Paul: Thanks, John.

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