Mesothelioma at American Standard, Inc (Podcast)

In this podcast episode, John Maher talks with Paul Kelley, a partner at Satterley & Kelley law firm, about asbestos exposure at American Standard, Inc., a former Louisville-based plant producing HVAC systems and plumbing fixtures. Paul discusses how asbestos materials used in the plant posed health risks, particularly for workers involved in plant maintenance, construction, and production. The conversation also covers secondary exposure, affecting families through asbestos fibers brought home on workers’ clothing. For those impacted by asbestos-related illnesses like mesothelioma, Paul outlines the importance of prompt medical care and seeking legal counsel to secure compensation. For more information, visit Satterley & Kelley at SatterleyLaw.com.

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. Welcome, Paul.

Paul Kelley: Hey, John. How you doing today?

About American Standard

Maher: Good. Thanks. So, Paul, today we’re talking about mesothelioma and asbestos at American Standard, Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. Can you tell me a little bit about American Standard and what they do?

Kelley: Sure. I mean, everybody probably is a little familiar with American Standard. You probably have several of their products in your home. Historically, it made HVAC systems, made a lot of plumbing fixtures from bathtubs, sinks, toilets, things of that nature. Here in Louisville for a long, long time, American Standard had an enamel plant that essentially made plumbing fixtures, big bathtubs, sinks, but primarily those types of products.

The plant here in Louisville actually opened even before American Standard actually owned it. Another company originally built the facility in the 1890s, and American Standard came into possession of it in 1927 or ’28, I believe, and operated the plant until 1992 when it closed down. For those that are familiar with Louisville, it was located on South Seventh Street, so not too far off the beaten path downtown, and it employed a lot of people for a lot of time, but as we’ll talk about here in a minute, unfortunately, there was a lot of asbestos products there and a lot of people were exposed to those products too.

American Standard and Asbestos

Maher: Yeah. So, talk a little bit more about that and how American Standard is related to asbestos and mesothelioma cancer cases.

Kelley: Sure. So, two different ways. You know, certainly the plant itself had asbestos all over it. All of the steam lines or steam pipes, there was a boiler system in there that had asbestos located on it. There was a lot of conduit. There was a lot of duct work that was all loaded with asbestos products. Primarily thermal insulation, sometimes there would be some sort of cement or material that came in a dry mixture and mixed with water, and then kind of spackled over pipes and systems.

There was ceiling tile. There was floor tile. All of the piping or much of the piping had gaskets that contained asbestos. The flanges that connect the two pipes were connected with gaskets, and the gaskets contained asbestos. So, the plant itself had a lot of asbestos in it. And then things that they used to make or manufacture the bathtubs contained asbestos. There were probably dozens of various types of furnaces and ovens and kilns that were in that plant that were utilized to make the bathtubs.

It was an enamel plant, and so that required a lot of high temperature and all of these furnaces, all of these ovens, at one time or another, they had asbestos fire brick that was inside the furnaces. They had refractory material, which is something that kind of went in over the fire brick that also contained asbestos. They had, in some instances, asbestos that went on the outer shell of the furnaces because again, these temperature ranges were approaching 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, if not higher, and then all the piping that was connected to these pieces of equipment all contained asbestos.

And for years and years and years from probably when asbestos products became widely used in the 1940s through probably the mid-seventies, even into the early eighties, all these products contained asbestos. And when the plant closed in 1992, to the extent that those furnaces and ovens were there and kilns and other equipment, many of them probably still contain asbestos. And I can assure you that the plant itself, while the piping and duct work and all that, much of that still would’ve contained asbestos even in 1992.

When Were American Standard Employees Exposed to Asbestos?

Maher: So how and when were employees of American Standard exposed to this asbestos that was in the plant?

Kelley: You know, certainly during, I wouldn’t say during the original construction of the plant. In the 1890s, asbestos was definitely a thing, but it wasn’t something that was commercially used that early. But when we start to move into the thirties, forties, and fifties, as there are plant additions, as there are renovations as just things generally improve and engineering got different, then asbestos starts becoming installed in all of these processes that we’ve talked about.

And, you know, they definitely would’ve had renovations in the facility. They definitely would’ve had to change out pipes and install new systems. And so, all the people that were involved in any sort of renovation, addition, construction projects that were at the facility would’ve had a very substantial exposure to asbestos. That’s going to include your millwrights. Millwrights typically worked a lot on high-end equipment, boilermakers to the extent that they had boilers in the facilities. You know, some of the boilermakers would work on the furnaces and ovens because that’s kind of in the same domain. Electricians, insulators, you know, insulators are the ones that put the insulation on.

Lots of times, a lot of these places, John, had just general laborers. I mean people that needed to come in and clean and hand over materials and just make sure that everything was going. And so, all those types of crafts definitely had exposure or certainly a high opportunity for exposure. And then these ovens and furnaces, they don’t get installed and then just work perfectly for 50 years. They have to have a lot of maintenance and they have to be overhauled so often.

So, it was very common every three or four years for each piece of equipment to get overhauled. And when that occurred, typically millwrights or maybe the boilermakers would come in, they would tear everything down. They would tear everything out from the inside. They would tear everything down from the outside. They would reconnect wires, cables, install, make sure everything’s good, and then they put it all back online. And again, frequently insulators would be involved. Brick layers were the craft that typically put the fire brick and the refractory material in. So, all those kinds of people would certainly have exposure to these products.

But, you know, again, the plants in operation when this is occurring. You know, they didn’t shut the plant down so that they could overhaul all the pieces of equipment. It would be let’s do one or two at a time and everything else will be in operation and we’ll continue to work and do our job. And so, a lot of people that were in the manufacturing process, in the plant operation side, they still were exposed to some of these materials when all of this work was being done because it was right there.

It was right next to them when they were working. American Standard, just like most manufacturing plants, they had a big maintenance staff. And so, there were a lot of people that were involved in in maintenance in the building. You know, if a pipe went out, sometimes it would be so significant they would call outside contractors, pipe fitters to do the work, but frequently they’re maintenance staff did that kind of work. And if they need to work on a pipe, they had to tear off the insulation to do that.

They had to tear out the gaskets to do that. If they needed to do any work on kind of the office operations, I mean, frequently there was drywall and a lot of that drywall contained joint compounds. Joint compounds contained asbestos for a long time and people would be exposed to those sort of things. So it’s hard to speak in absolutes, but I would say that virtually everybody that spent any appreciable period of time in that plant, either as an employee, an operations-side employee for American Standard, or as an outside contractor that did a lot of the construction, renovation, or overhauls, I would say that virtually all those people were exposed to high levels of asbestos one time or another pretty much throughout the history of the plant.

Secondary Exposure to Asbestos

Maher: Right. And then there can be secondary exposure to asbestos as well. Right? If these people were exposed to the asbestos and maybe they get those fibers on their clothes or something and then they end up bringing it home and now their families have been exposed and things like that too. Right?

Kelley: Sure. I mean, that’s one of the most devastating things that I’ve learned in my 23 years of handling asbestos cases is that there’s a group of spouses and children who suffer, no occupational exposure asbestos themselves, but they experienced exposure from handling or coming into contact with the clothing of their husband, their wife, you know, or their parent.

And then years later, they developed mesothelioma and nobody really, really understood why until folks like us took a detailed history and said, well, guys, your father worked at an American Standard for 35 years. What’d he do? Well, he was a bricklayer. Oh. Well, that’s where the exposure was. And so unfortunately, that happened a lot. And it also would happen to people who might’ve not really been a physical or manual laborer the facility at all.

I mean, you had supervisors, you had engineers, you know, kind of what we historically would call the white collar office workers. But if they spent time in the plant, they were still exposed to those materials. And what we’ve learned over the years, what science has really, really determined and concluded, you know, credibly concluded that it doesn’t take a significant amount of asbestos to cause mesothelioma.

And so, these people had massive exposures, the people that worked there. The people that did the hands-on work had massive exposures, but there definitely was a category of people who didn’t have those same kinds of exposures that still had and continue to have, if they’re alive, a significant risk of contracting this disease.

What Should Former American Standard Employees with Mesothelioma Do?

Maher: Right. So, if you worked at American Standard, whether you were a full-time employee there or whether you were hired as a contractor to do the maintenance or something like that and now you have mesothelioma, what should you do?

Kelley: So, you know, mesothelioma is a very difficult diagnosis to get. Unfortunately, the statistics show that the average person will pass away somewhere within six to 18 months from their diagnosis, even with better treatments those averages still exist today, and they were the same 20 years ago. So, it’s really important for people to obviously figure out the best approach for them to deal with their medical care.

Depending on where you are, you know, Louisville, Kentucky, where I practice, there’s a lot of great physicians here and a lot of great treatment opportunities, but we don’t have everything here. And sometimes it’s better for people to go to New York or Boston, Chicago, Houston, you know, the hospitals and physicians that specialize in this treatment or in treatment of this disease. And that’s personal to every person and their family. Unfortunately, to the extent that you want to seek a legal remedy for what’s happened, we don’t have a lot of time to do that.

And in Kentucky, where I’m at, we only have a year from the date that we know or should know what our injury is and what caused that injury to file a lawsuit. So, while it’s of course much more important for you to determine medically how you should proceed and decide that with your family, you still have to work diligently to figure out what your legal rights are, and you should start looking for an attorney immediately. And it’s important, I believe, to find someone who not only has a lot of experience handling asbestos cases but has a lot of experience handling asbestos cases where you’re located or at least has experience with the locations where you work.

 I do work all over the country. I’m extremely familiar with dozens if not hundreds of sites in Kentucky. We’re familiar with sites all over the United States, but this particular site that we’re talking about today, American Standard, we have a lot of experience with, and I don’t have to do a lot of investigation.

If you come to me and say, you know, I worked at American Standard for 30 years, or I was a contractor and spent three years working there, I fairly well know what the universal products that you’re exposed to. So, it’s important to determine what your legal rights are. And unfortunately, we can’t waste time. And there’s a lot of different reasons that statute of limitations is ever present. But also from a practical standpoint, I wish I could tell everybody, look, you’re going to live for a long time and we’re going to let the process play out, and we’ll have plenty of time to work up your case and we’ll get it worked up. We’ll get to trial. We’ll get a great result, and everybody will be happy.

Sadly, that’s not the reality. The reality is that in six months or a year, you may not be able to participate the way that you can today. So, we want to get a case filed quickly. We want to be able to get your deposition in so that you can not just tell everybody what your exposure is, but tell everybody how it’s impacted you.

I mean, that’s really where it’s at. I can probably tell how you were exposed through numerous different ways, but telling the judge, the jury, defendants, you know, the world, how this cancer has had an impact on you, I can tell that story better with you than with anybody else. If you have coworkers, I mean, these exposures are going back sometimes 50, 60 years.

So, we need time, you need time to be able to track down those people. Memories don’t get better. Evidence gets lost. So unfortunately, you have this whole problem of dealing with your medical care and determining what’s best for you and your family. But on the other side, you probably have strong legal rights and you probably have a good opportunity to receive some compensation that will help you and your family in this time of need. But you have to diligently pursue that and locating and retaining lawyers that you’re comfortable with and that you know how to handle this litigation is critically important.

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

Kelley: Thanks so much, John. I appreciate it.

Information About Satterley & Kelley

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