BATON ROUGE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Dow Chemical Company was found liable on all counts in a civil lawsuit filed in Louisiana state court relating to its use of asbestos and allegedly causing cancer in its workers. The case was decided by a Plaquemine, Louisiana jury. Dow Chemical’s Louisiana division is headquartered in Plaquemine, LA. The Dow Plaquemine Plant is the largest chemical plant in the petro-chemical industry rich state.
The lawsuit alleged that exposures to asbestos at Dow Chemical caused Sidney Mabile’s terminal asbestos cancer, mesothelioma. Mabile’s attorneys alleged in the suit that Dow has exposed thousands of workers to asbestos, and that Mabile is only one of hundreds of future asbestos cancer victims also exposed at Dow.
Court documents revealed that Dow has continued to use tons of raw asbestos in its chemical manufacturing facilities throughout the world. “Most chemical companies abandoned using asbestos decades ago. But Dow continues to use the notorious carcinogen in plants throughout the world because the processing is roughly ten percent less expensive with asbestos than with asbestos-free alternatives," said attorney John Langdoc of Baron and Budd.
Internal Dow documents showed that Dow lobbied to oppose the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed ban of asbestos. Court documents suggested that Dow performed a “cost per cancer” analysis and determined that it would cost Dow over $1.2 billion to switch all of its plants to non-asbestos processing methods. Dow was successful in lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency to allow Dow to continue using raw asbestos in its United States chemical plants. Dow has continued to fight the ban of asbestos in other countries. The European Trade Union Confederation explains that an “[o]pposition to a blanket asbestos ban now seems to come only from Dow Chemicals.”
Baron and Budd, a law firm with a long history of representing states, cities, and individual environmental and occupational cancer victims, represented Mabile. Mesothelioma attorney John Langdoc represented Mabile at trial. Dow was represented at trial by a team of lawyers lead by Baton Rouge attorney David Bienvenu of Bienvenu, Bonnecaze, Foco, Viator & Holinga, APLLC. “Dow fought this case with all of its legal might, and we are relieved that the jury was able to see Dow for what it is: a company that chose to make more money over protecting its workers from carcinogens. Mr. Mabile holds hope that this verdict will lead to a change at Dow, and that it will stop using asbestos before even more workers are diagnosed with cancers,” said Langdoc.
