http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/silicosis Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:03:26 -0800 pixel-app en http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/8533 Sat, 14 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/8533
However, Circuit Court Judge James A. Cales Jr. did not enter the verdict. Rather, he plans to hear Norfolk Southern motions to set the decision aside or, if not, then reduce the award, at a hearing in October .

The verdict came down Thursday . I am not just hopeful, but confident it will be set aside, said J.A. Stalnaker , the attorney who represented the Norfolk-based railroad. The verdict is contrary to the evidence and to the law. Silicosis is a disabling lung disease caused by breathing in too much silica dust during a period of years.

Overexposure to silica dust can cause lung scarring that makes breathing difficult, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health . While silicosis is preventable, it is also incurable.

More than 250 Americans die each year with the disease, which has been associated with bronchitis, tuberculosis and, in some studies, with lung cancer. Dale Rogers of Virginia Beach sued Norfolk Southern in September seeking damages for his pain and suffering for the early silicosis he allegedly contracted during 16 years as a maintenance-of-way employee for the railroad. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7768 Thu, 11 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7768
The civil lawsuit, filed in state court in Las Vegas, seeks class-action status and unspecified damages.

It claims the companies knew workers and visitors were exposed to dangerous levels of silica and other toxic dust during tunneling from 1992 to 1996.

``This lawsuit will expose an outrageous fraud against the work force and even the visitors at Yucca Mountain, one that's already killing people,'' said plaintiff Gene Griego, who worked as a tunnel supervisor at the Yucca Mountain site.

Griego, a nonsmoker who lives in Las Vegas, was diagnosed last year with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The lawsuit names Bechtel Corp. and its Nevada subsidiaries on the Yucca Mountain project; Bechtel SAIC Corp. of Delaware; Kiewit Group of Delaware; Parsons Brinckerhoff Construction of Delaware and subsidiaries; Morrison-Knudsen, now known as Washington Group International of Delaware; and TRW Automotive Holdings of Delaware and subsidiaries.

Bechtel SAIC spokeswoman Beatrice Reilly in Las Vegas declined comment, saying the companies had not yet seen the lawsuit. Requests for comment from Parsons Brinckerhoff, TRW, Kiewit and Washington Group were not immediately returned.

The Energy Department developed the Yucca site and gained Bush administration and congressional approval in 2002 to bury 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive waste at the site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The agency plans to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of the year for a license to operate the waste site.

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Thursday that because the DOE was not named as a party to the lawsuit, it would not comment. But he added that the health and safety of Yucca Mountain workers ``has been and continues to be our first priority.''

Silicosis is a chronic, progressive and incurable lung disease that can develop years after long-term exposure to silica dust. It can be debilitating or even fatal.

In January, Yucca Mountain project managers began a lung disease screening program for current and former workers, saying up to 1,500 of them may have inhaled airborne silica.

Last month, the Energy Department began investigating whether documents were altered to misrepresent potentially hazardous dust levels at the site.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has called for a federal Labor Department investigation and has scheduled hearings on the silicosis issue that will begin Monday in Las Vegas.

``What happened to these workers is a tragedy and 100 percent preventable,'' Reid said in a statement Thursday. ``Someone is responsible for the fact that hundreds of workers may get sick and face death.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7586 Wed, 11 Feb 2004 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7586
"We will go out and take a look to see if it's a dust problem," Environmental Protection Division Administrator Allen Biaggi told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Wednesday report.

The state decision to inspect the site came after former Yucca Mountain project workers alleged they were exposed to toxic dust while drilling the 5-mile long test tunnel in the mid-1990s.

Yucca Mountain spokesman Allen Benson said the Energy Department has not been contacted by the state about the inspection.

He said the pile was not considered waste rock by the Energy Department because it could be used later to fill the tunnel after the repository is loaded with 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive industrial and defense waste.

Classifying the tailings as waste rock could make it subject to federal hazardous waste laws.

State Nuclear Projects Agency Executive Director Bob Loux, Gov. Kenny Guinn's top anti-Yucca aide, said the state has the authority to review any possible environmental or public health and safety concern.

"If the federal government isn't going to do it, the state will probably have to step in and begin regulating," he said.

Biaggi said a state Environmental Protection Division inspector would inspect the site this week for possible sources of inhalable dust particles under the federal Clean Air Act.

"We'll look for potential sources of dust from the material and look at what process this came from," he said.

The division has no authority to inspect the tunnel or ventilation systems inside buildings at the site. The lavender-colored rock pile is several hundred yards east of the tunnel's north portal, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for monitoring inside the tunnel under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which covers at least two fibrous zeolite minerals found in the mountain, erionite and mordenite.

Of key concern is erionite, a carcinogen that scientists from the Los Alamos, N.M. national laboratory found at Yucca Mountain, according to a report written in 1989.

An EPA official told the Review-Journal that the tailings might be exempt from hazardous waste regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The state oversees the act in Nevada, which covers mining and other activities involving potentially hazardous materials.

But Cheryl Nelson, a regulator at the EPA San Francisco regional office, said hazardous waste regulations would apply if the rock was discarded and it exhibited a "hazardous characteristic."

Hazardous characteristics usually refer to the possibility that toxic metals like lead or chromium could leach from tailings and contaminate groundwater supplies.

One former tunnel construction supervisor, Gene Griego, 52, of North Las Vegas, claims he and others contracted chronic lung diseases from inhaling fibrous silicate-laced minerals, including erionite, inside the Yucca Mountain tunnel.

The Energy Department acknowledged last month that some of the more than 1,200 tunnel workers might have been exposed to silica dust, and began offering free silicosis screenings. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7585 Fri, 30 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7585
Whistle-blower Gene Griego told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Friday report that workers were at risk from the onset of tunnel operations in 1993 until Yucca managers improved ventilation and dust controls in 1996.

A stop-work order in August 1996 prompted the Energy Department to strengthen safety enforcement, project officials said.

The Energy Department acknowledged this month that some workers may have been exposed to silica, a dust that can limit lung capacity and lead to death.

Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said measures now in place are protecting Yucca workers. About 140 work at the site.

Griego gathered documents suggesting the Energy Department knew about the dangers of airborne silica and other fibrous minerals disturbed during drilling. The Yucca Mountain tunnel is five miles long with a diameter of 25 feet.

Griego began airing complaints before the Energy Department announced Jan. 15 it would offer free silicosis screenings for current and former workers at the proposed nuclear waste burial site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Notifications are being sent to between 1,200 and 1,500 current and former Yucca Mountain workers, the department said.

Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said Thursday that health protections were always in place but were not always fully enforced.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Thursday demanded Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham explain whether the department was aware of high levels of silica at the Yucca site before tunnel construction began and what steps were taken to protect workers.

It seems the Department of Energy has once again risked health and safety to push through the Yucca Mountain project. Reid said. They are trying to sell us a bill of goods that the project is safe, and meanwhile some of their own workers may have contracted a fatal illness from working at the site.

Griego said he has found 25 current or former workers who were diagnosed with silicosis or who have reported symptoms, such as coughing up blood.

Barbara Harris of Las Vegas said Thursday her son, Robert Harris, 49, worked at Yucca Mountain and died in May 2002 of a cancer that started in a lung. She declined to discuss details.

Jeff Dean, 41, was a conveyer operator from June 1995 to October 1998 and a drilling foreman at the Nevada Test Site. He was diagnosed with silicosis last March.

The workers were worried about the dust, he said, but they assured us the dust was within lab limits and your body gets acclimated to it.

Before working at Yucca Mountain, Dean drilled underground weapons tests cavities for Reynolds Electrical and Engineering at the Nevada Test Site. He acknowledged his lung problems could be related to that work.

Griego, 52, of North Las Vegas, said doctors have diagnosed his condition as chronic obstruction pulmonary disease.

He is not a smoker, and blames his condition on exposure to a mixture of airborne silica and components of a class of minerals called zeolites.

He said he wore a painters mask as protection against the dust at work, and said the use of water for dust control was limited because scientists feared it would disrupt experiments on how fluids travel through the cracks and pores of the mountain.

A 1991 Los Alamos study warned that dry drilling at Yucca Mountain posed health concerns because of high silica content in the rock and an abundance of zeolites whose inhalation may result in asbestos-like lung diseases.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/4854 Thu, 27 Feb 2003 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/4854
Harrel Horton has sued the manufacturer of the synthetic sand used in the sandblasting for medical expenses and punitive damages.

The case is in trial this week in 347th district court in Nueces County.

Horton, 67, says Lone Star Industries should have taken steps to better protect workers like him from inhaling the dangerous abrasive sand.

Horton worked for various companies from the 1950s through the 1970s, sandblasting mostly at refineries and large industrial sites.

In 2001, Horton was diagnosed with silicosis.

Silicosis is an inflammation of the lungs caused by extended exposure to abrasive silicon sand.

Horton says he doesn't experience pain, just shortness of breath. The breathing problem limits his activity.

He says doctors believe he will only live another five years because of the illness.

Sandblasting is a quick, effective way of cleaning metal and other surfaces without using liquids, which could lead to rust.

Lone Star Industries is one of the companies that makes the synthetic sand used in sandblasting.

An attorney for Lone Star Industries presented witnesses Wednesday who point to others for possible blame for Horton's illness, specifically Horton himself, and the maker of the protective face mask used during sandblasting.

A lung doctor told the jury Horton should have sought further medical attention back in 1988 when another doctor told Horton his chest X-ray "scared him (the doctor)."

An air pollution expert testified the makers of protective face masks used in sandblasting aren't effective.

Both sides rested their cases Wednesday.

Closing arguments are set for Thursday afternoon. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7587 Fri, 17 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7587
Respiratory health was a key focus of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration last year, and will remain a focus this year, said Mark Norton, the agency's assistant director for Arizona. Respiratory-health problems can take decades to appear, so health officials are just now realizing the risk, Norton said.

Last year OSHA fined two local companies for exposing workers to crystalline silica, or sand used to make glass and ceramic products.

Thirstystone Resources was fined $1,225 for failing to write and implement a respiratory-protection program for workers who are required to wear respirators. Conway Tile was fined $1,750 for a missing safety plan and for not giving respirators to workers who were exposed to silica 12 times the permissible levels.

Exposure also can happen at construction sites while workers break up rock, concrete and brick.

More than 1 million U.S. workers are exposed to crystalline silica, according to OSHA, and each year more than 250 die from silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust.

The disease is completely preventable by limiting exposure using masks and good ventilation.

This year, local inspectors will focus on isocyanates, one of two main ingredients in polyurethane coatings found in truck bed liners, foam in furniture, insulation, shoes and glues.

Exposure to the chemical causes skin irritation, asthma and other breathing problems. The chemical also may cause cancer. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/silicosis Fri, 17 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/silicosis Silicosis Every year, 2 million workers in the U.S. are exposed to crystalline silica, which can cause silicosis, a disabling and sometimes fatal disease. About 300 deaths are attributed to silicosis annually. Inhaling airborne crystalline silica dust also has been associated with other diseases such as tuberculosis and lung cancer. However, silicosis is often misdiagnosed as pulmonary edema and pneumonia.

JOBS WITH HIGH LIKELIHOOD OF CAUSING SILICOSIS

• Sandblasting
• Cement Manufacturing
• Asphalt Pavement Manufacturing
• Foudry Industry
• Jackhammer Operations
• Rock/Well Drilling
• Concrete Mixing
• Concrete Tunneling
• Brick and Concrete Cutting
• Railroad Workers and Repair
• Soap Detergent Workers
• Glass Manufacturing
• Shipbuilders
• Underground Miners
  

SYMPTOMS OF SILICOSIS

Early stages of the disease may go unnoticed. Continued exposure may result in shortness of breath while exercising, possible fever and occasionally bluish skin at the ear lobes or lips. Silicosis makes a person more susceptible to infectious diseases of the lungs such as tuberculosis. Progression of silicosis leads to fatigue, extreme shortness of breath, loss of appetite, pain in the chest, and respiratory failure, which may cause death. Acute silicosis may develop after short periods of exposure. Chronic silicosis usually occurs after 10 or more years of exposure to lower levels of quartz.

If you or a loved one suffered side effects from Silicosis, please fill out the form at the right for a free case evaluation by a qualified pollutants attorney.]]>