Asbestos and Mesothelioma at Rohm and Haas in Louisville, KY

In this episode, Paul Kelley from Satterley & Kelley discusses asbestos exposure concerns at the Rohm and Haas chemical plant in Louisville, Kentucky. He explains how construction, maintenance, renovation work, pipe insulation, boilers, vessels, and reentrained dust may have created risks for employees, contractors, and others who later developed mesothelioma.

John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher, and I’m here today with Paul Kelley. Paul is a partner with the Kentucky Personal Injury Law Firm, Satterly and Kelly, which has over 45 years of collective experience in litigating mesothelioma and asbestos claims. Today we’re talking about mesothelioma and asbestos claims at Rohm and Haas in Louisville, Kentucky. Welcome, Paul.

Paul Kelley: Hey, John. How’s it going today?

John: I’m doing well. How are you?

Paul: Doing great. Thank you.

Rohm and Haas and Louisville’s Rubbertown

John: Paul, tell us a little bit about Rohm and Haas in Louisville and what it is that they did.

Paul: Sure. So Rohm and Haas was a chemical plant, a chemical company that had a plant here in Louisville in what we call the rubbertown area. We’ve talked about some other locations, but we have kind of a chemical row, so to speak, here in Louisville, in South Louisville. And there were a lot of chemical companies that were just kind of bang, bang, bang, right next to each other. And we call it Rubbertown. And so this particular facility was originally owned by a company called Union Carbide. And in 1961, I believe, Rohm and Haas took over the facility and operated for many years.

Many years later, Rohm and Haas became a division of a company called Dow Chemical. And so Dow Chemical actually owns the plant. But at the timeframe that we’re predominantly interested in, it was a Rohm and Haas facility. And it made a variety of chemicals that were used in paints and emulsions and just a variety of industrial uses that were involved.

And I think it’s still, whoever owns it today still kind of operates it in that same context.

Asbestos in Chemical Plant Equipment and Facilities

John: So how was this chemical company related to asbestos and mesothelioma claims?

Paul: So [it was] a massive facility with multiple buildings, and there was a substantial need for hot water and steam and chemical processes. And first of all, when you’re talking about a plant that’s built in the 50s, it was built with lots of asbestos. Most of your pipe insulation contain asbestos, there’d be miles and miles of pipes in this facility that were insulated. There were boilers, there were furnaces, both the inside and outsides of these boilers and furnaces contain asbestos. There were turbines there. There was a powerhouse in this plant and it contained asbestos tanks and vessels that carried these hot chemicals that were both used in the manufacturing process, as well as your chemicals that ultimately were being manufactured and stored there.

And quite frankly, the whole facility, every building, was just absolutely infested with asbestos. And I’m sure that there’s probably still some there today if somebody went and conducted a survey and conducted an investigation.

How Employees and Contractors Were Exposed to Asbestos

John: So how and when were employees of Rohm and Haas exposed to this asbestos that was in the building?

Paul: So certainly more than just employees were exposed. Let’s start with the construction of the plant. Construction of the plant required all kinds of trades from insulators to electricians to mill rights, sheet metal workers, carpenters, whatever kind of trade needed to boilermakers that were utilized to construct this facility. I would say that the vast majority of them were exposed in some way during that construction.

Typically, the insulation process occurred last, and the insulation is by far the most significant asbestos located in the facility, but that still is not something that they could afford to just do all at once when the plant was completely in operation. So they’re insulating back here when other crafts are working up here, accomplishing various tasks.

So certainly anybody involved in construction. Over the years, that facility was renovated and there were additions, there were demolitions, all kinds of activities that occurred that required tear out of pipes, tear out of boilers, tear out of vessels and tanks. And anybody involved in that process would also be exposed.

And it’s many of the same crafts that we’ve discussed before, the millwrights, the pipe fitters, insulators, but it wasn’t something that, “Hey, when we just put it up, there was some risk in the beginning and then it was fine after that.” That’s not the case. And over the 50 years, 60 years that that plant’s been up in operation, you can be fairly assured that there were substantial renovations, additions, tear outs, things like that, that would always expose people. So that’s your kind of outside workforce.

Then you have all the Rohm and Haas employees and certainly your maintenance employees would probably have the most significant exposures. They have to work on pipes, they have to work on vessels and tanks. They would have electricians on staff. They have some various crafts that would be on staff. And if it was not a big enough thing project for them to call in outside contractors, then your Rohm and Haas employees are certainly being exposed. Just over time, those materials deteriorate.

And we hear stories all the time of employees just doing their job, operating the machine, working controls out on the floor and deteriorated insulation is falling on the floor, falling on them, hitting their machines, hitting them, hitting coworkers. And there would be a heavy opportunity for exposures when that occurred. And certainly when you’ve got asbestos being disturbed, whether it’s because they’re conducting a renovation or somebody is performing a maintenance activity or just by virtue of the deterioration of the product, that exposure’s there. The asbestos is there.

And unless there’s been some sort of concerted effort to clean the facility top to bottom on a regular basis to clear disturbed asbestos materials out, everybody’s just stirring it up. We call it reentrainment, or actually the experts call it reentrainment. And it’s just a simple concept of when you’re cleaning dust on the floor and somebody shuffles their feet through it and dust goes flying everywhere. So imagine that with a carcinogenic, asbestos-containing product.

People would have cleaning responsibilities at the end of a shift and compressed air was frequently used during basically daily operations. So a lot of people would be exposed even if they really didn’t have any hands-on experience with asbestos materials that were there. It’s not limited to the hourly wage employees. It’s also the shirt and tie people, the engineers, the supervisors. If you can breathe, you’ve had exposure.

Now, maybe that exposure would be more significant for the people that are working hands-on, but you’re getting that exposure potentially daily, even if it’s fairly small levels for many years. And you hear about lifetime employees that were not in maintenance. They were not pipe fitters. They weren’t electricians, but they’re there every day and those conditions, unfortunately, they can improve. And I guess over time, if there’s absolutely zero introduction of asbestos into the air, at some point it’s not there, but as long as there’s any activities that are occurring, asbestos is going to be in the air, it’s going to be reentrained and anyone who worked there, whether they’re a direct Rohm and Haas employee or an outside contractor, would have an opportunity and likely experience significant exposure.

And we certainly have learned, unfortunately, over time, that it doesn’t take a really significant dose of asbestos to cause mesothelioma. Literature is reported that one day of exposure can cause that cancer. And so you’ve got people that work there that got substantially more than one day of exposure.

Reentrained Asbestos Dust and Daily Exposure

John: Right. And like you said, it’s constantly being reintroduced into the air, maybe with compressed air and they’re cleaning things off. It’s getting back up in the air and that asbestos is not going anywhere. It’s just remaining there and it falls back down and then gets blown around and back up into the air again. And especially where asbestos is constantly being reintroduced into the system as well for more falling insulation and things like that, it’s just never going away. So it’s daily exposures for these people.

Yeah, that’s absolutely right. And there are ways, and it’s been known for a long time how, to thoroughly clean asbestos materials from a work site. And it’s expensive and it’s time consuming, but there’s special equipment that can be used to do that, but that’s not what was happening in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. And even in modern day, lots of times they don’t just remove all the asbestos. They cover it. They put signs up and they say, stay away from it.

But in terms of what’s kind of a common experience for our clients in the 60s and 70s is, yeah, somebody’s doing something with it every day and that dust gets into the air and it just constantly keeps getting moved around and it doesn’t go anywhere and it won’t go anywhere unless there’s a concerted and effort and a desire to get rid of it.

What Workers With Mesothelioma Should Do Next

John: So if somebody worked at Rohm and Haas, whether or not they were an employee or a contractor who came in and did some of the construction or maintenance work, and now they have mesothelioma, what should they do?

Paul: I think it’s important for people to determine all of their legal rights, to certainly work with their family and their medical team to determine the best course of treatment. Mesothelioma is a fatal disease. Very few people survive that cancer beyond two, three years. There certainly are some terrific success stories out there, and we hope that that’s the reality for everybody, but unfortunately it’s not. And it carries a substantial burden on people, both from an emotional standpoint as well as from a financial standpoint.

And I think it’s important for people to determine what all of their rights are. And that means they have a right to get the best medical care that’s available for this cancer and the best medical care that’s right for them, right for their family. And we’re not involved in that. That’s something that people need to work out with their family and their medical team.

But where we come along, and where other lawyers can certainly assist is, you have to learn what your legal rights are. And what we know is that anyone who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, it’s almost guaranteed that they experienced some sort of occupational or non-occupational exposure to asbestos. And so the first question that anyone needs to ask when they’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma is, “How was I exposed to asbestos? Where was I exposed? And is there someone that can assist me with the financial burden that me and my family will experience?”

And it’s not always obvious to people that they will suffer those kinds of negative consequences, but unfortunately it will become prevalent and obvious as their course of treatment and their cancer progresses. And so you need to pursue your legal rights, make a determination as to whether it makes sense to pursue a legal claim.

For some people, it’s not for various reasons, but for most people it is. And this type of litigation, we’ve been doing it for almost 30 years, and this type of litigation is not something that people ought to dabble in or just have a little bit of experience with because the types of lawyers and defendants that you’re going up against, this is their life, this is what they do and they know a lot more about what was at their facility, or their client’s facility, than you’ll ever know.

And given the statistics associated with how long people live following their diagnosis, it’s really important to move quickly. Given the fact that under Kentucky law, we don’t have a lot of time to pursue a lawsuit. We only have a year from the date that we know we have a disease and know or should know what the cause of that disease is.

Well, with mesothelioma, you figure it out pretty quickly when you have the disease, but sometimes it takes a little bit longer to figure out how you got it, but I don’t like to leave anything to chance. We want to get that case filed as quickly as possible. We certainly want to get it filed within a year from the date of your diagnosis, because beyond that, then you’re in the hands of a judge and a judge may decide that you filed it too late.

The judge probably would like to do everything within the law that he or she can do to make sure that you can pursue your case, but the law is very harsh and lots of times the judges are just bound to dismiss your case because it wasn’t filed soon enough. And so it’s important to pursue your legal rights so that we can get that lawsuit filed as quickly as possible. Probably equally as important is because of the limited life expectancy of someone diagnosed with this cancer, we want for people to be able to participate in their case.

When somebody comes to me, the first goal is to figure out the exposure. Second goal is to get the lawsuit filed. The third goal is to get your deposition in and your deposition is really done for two reasons. One reason is if you’re not able to testify at trial, we’ve got your testimony videotaped and what we call in the can. And then that way, if something happens to you before the case is completed, the case doesn’t just end. It can continue on. And that’s certainly important. Our sincere hope is that you’ll be able to participate at trial and you’ll be able to look the judge and jury in the eye and tell them what’s happened to you.

I think that even perhaps more important than that is the deposition gives people an opportunity early on to really communicate how this cancer has impacted you, how it’s impacted your family. Certainly telling the details of how you were exposed, where you were exposed, when you were exposed, all that is critically important to a case, and that’s certainly front and center of what we’re trying to accomplish, but many times our clients find it to relieve a tremendous burden to be able to tell somebody, tell somebody other than your doctor, tell somebody other than your family, even tell someone other than me. “This is what’s happened to me. This is how this has impacted my life”, and having the opportunity to do that. And it also helps get people focused so that they really can think about the numerous ways that this cancer has impacted them and what their fears and concerns are.

And I want to be able to give people that opportunity. And again, we hope and pray with you that your situation will be better than the average, that you will not only live a lot longer than most people do, but that you’ll live well a lot longer than most people do. But if you can’t, this is important evidence for your case, important evidence for your family, and an important opportunity for you to be able to really get off your chest, what you’ve been dealing with.

So when this diagnosis happens, we understand the trauma that people experience with a significant and a fatal diagnosis, but unfortunately the law doesn’t allow people to figure out how they’re going to treat, go through all that treatment, see how they feel, and make a decision later on as to whether they want to pursue a case. If you wait too long, it may be too late, and nobody wants that.

Paul: You hire attorneys who have experience with, say, this particular location, like Rohm and Haas, a lot of the work’s already done, and a lot of the things that are necessary to pursue a case, we’re just looking for you to fill in the details of your particular situation. And then we can apply that to the decades of information that we’ve been able to compile concerning that particular facility, or any other places that you happen to work at, or any other ways that you happen to be exposed, because many times people haven’t just been exposed at this one location or in this one way, and that’s just a big part of what we do is conduct a thorough investigation, and if Rohm and Haas, if this plant’s the only place you’ve been exposed, then we know what to do. If there are other places, more than likely we know what to do, and with absolute certainty, we’ll figure it out pretty quickly.

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 and Kelley at satterleylaw.com or call 855-385-9532.