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History
History of Asbestos Litigation
Commercial asbestos mines first opened towards the end of the 19th century. As demand for products increased during the Industrial Revolution, new applications for asbestos also developed. As companies sought more and more asbestos for their products, the industry of mining and producing the material skyrocketed. Before long the companies were employing thousands of workers and turning astronomical profits.Based on several internal documents later uncovered, it is apparent that the asbestos companies knew of its health dangers early on. However, they went to great lengths to conceal these findings.
In what would become the first diagnosed case of asbestosis, a British doctor in the early 1900's found asbestos fibers in the lungs of a young man employed by a textile factory who died at the age of 33. In a 1917 study by the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine, physicians found lung scarring in asbestos factory workers.
A report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1918 claimed that insurance companies were denying coverage to asbestos workers due to the nature of the injurious conditions they assumed at work. This was based in large part on the early deaths of many younger workers in the industry. Later, the British Medical Journal would begin to publish numerous articles on asbestosis, citing indisputable links between asbestos, cancer, and death.
By the 1930s, it was difficult for asbestos manufacturers to deny the deadly risks of their products. Aetna Insurance noted in 1934 that exposure to asbestos would lead "permanent disability followed by death." By the end of the 1940s, it was widely accepted in the medical community that asbestos contact may cause lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma.
Even then, asbestos producers covered up the truth about their material from the public and their workers rather than offering a solution or any safety plan. Shocking as it is, there were situations where companies studied the health of their employees without their knowledge, only to rewrite the findings to keep the health hazards concealed. Many of these companies would even incorrectly label their products to conceal the dangers, or fail to label them altogether.
In 1933, Johns Manville quietly settled a lawsuit brought by eleven former employees and asbestos victims. While there were various other instances of legal action by victims of asbestos exposure here and there during the first half of the twentieth century, it was not until the Federal Government took significant action to restrict asbestos usage and exposure that the frequency of lawsuits began to increase.