Occidental Chemical Corporation

Occidental Chemical Corporation employees exposed to asbestos

Currently, a chemical plant of the company, Diamond Alkali, which is located in New Jersey, is a Superfund site. The Environmental Protection Agency is doing everything possible to clean up the hazardous chemicals released by the manufacturer. At the end of 2016, Occidental Chemical Corporation agreed to a settlement with the agency to perform the engineering and design work necessary to begin the cleanup of the lower 8 miles of the Passaic River, a process whose cost is estimated at $165 million. Interestingly, Occidental Chemical Corporation used to manufacture the herbicides that were the primary ingredients in the infamous Agent Orange. The New Jersey plant of the company became a Superfund site in 1984. Some of the contaminants of concern found by the Environmental Protection Agency in the river were dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, heavy metals, and pesticides.

Occidental Chemical Corporation is the leading producer of chlorine, potassium hydroxide, and caustic soda in the U.S. It is also the top producer of vinyl chloride monomers in North America. In addition to the serious pollution the company is responsible for in New Jersey, it also exposed workers to asbestos before 1980, as the manufacturing of chemicals requires large amounts of energy and heat. Asbestos is the perfect material to prevent overheating, fires, and explosions, and because it was widely available and cheap at the time, it was the go-to material for the majority of chemical manufacturers in the country. The boilers in the chemicals plants of Occidental Chemical Corporation were insulated with asbestos, and the mineral was also used in pipes, tanks, pumps, gaskets, valves, and steam lines.

Every time employees would disturb asbestos insulation, it would release toxic fibers that they would unavoidably inhale and ingest. Furthermore, chemical plant workers would be exposed to asbestos from the very protective equipment they had to wear when they were maintaining or repairing machinery or equipment prone to overheating. They would wear asbestos gloves, masks, and aprons and use asbestos cloth and asbestos blankets to handle components that were hot. The following are the occupational groups exposed to asbestos in the chemical plants of Occidental Chemical Corporation:

• boiler workers
• pipefitters and steamfitters
• machinists
• electricians

If you were employed at Occidental Chemical Corporation between the 1920s and the 1980s and came to suffer from a disease caused by asbestos exposure, we encourage you to give our team a phone call, as you are most likely eligible to file a claim. By filing a claim for occupational asbestos exposure, you will eventually receive the financial compensation you deserve for your distress.

Secondary asbestos exposure, a serious concern for the family members of Occidental Chemical Corporation workers

Exposure to asbestos from coming in contact with a family member who handled the mineral on the job was very common during the last century. Usually, women would inhale and ingest asbestos fibers when laundering the work clothes of their husbands, whereas children would be exposed to asbestos when greeting their fathers upon coming home from work. While secondary asbestos exposure may not seem as serious as direct asbestos exposure, it can lead to the development of the same harrowing diseases, as over the years, carcinogenic fibers accumulate in the body of family members.

If you shared a home with a worker of Occidental Chemical Corporation and are now struggling with a disease that may have a link to asbestos exposure, you should not hesitate to get in touch with our lawyers, as our main area of practice is toxic exposure and we will help you get the money you are entitled to from the company. You will only have to provide our attorneys with evidence of having a family member who was employed at Occidental Chemical Corporation and with your medical records as proof of diagnosis.

Legal assistance in wrongful death asbestos exposure cases for family members

If you lost a family member to a disease stemming from occupational asbestos exposure, such as lung cancer or mesothelioma, and they had not filed a claim during their lifetime, you can decide to file a wrongful death claim on their behalf. Our attorneys are here to help you with the legal process, which is similar to that of filing a regular asbestos exposure claim. However, the compensation you will obtain will be smaller than if your departed loved one would have filed a claim, but the money you will get can still help you with costs such as the funeral expenses.

All you need to do if you wish to file a wrongful death claim is to contact our legal team, explain your situation in detail, and then send our experts the employment and medical records of your family member and also their death certificate. If we determine that you are eligible, our lawyers will promptly begin preparing the claim, and several months following submission to the company, you will receive the largest sum of money available. Nonetheless, you should know that there is a statute of limitations, so it is best to take action as soon as possible on behalf of your deceased loved one.