The City of Angels’ Dirty Secret: Asbestos Abounds
Today the Tour of California winds its way through greater Los Angeles on its route from Santa Clarita to Pasadena. Los Angeles’ reputation as a hotspot for tourism, arts and entertainment is well known. What most people don’t know is that LA is also a hotspot for asbestos contamination and, regrettably, mesothelioma.
It’s a morbid subject, and we can’t blame you for not wanting to read on. Our intent is not to depress, but simply to educate. Many mistakenly believe that asbestos disease and asbestos exposure faded away in the 1970s. As the following statistics reveal, this is simply not true, especially in Los Angeles.
According to a recent report by the Environmental Working Group, Los Angeles County has the highest incidence of mesothelioma in the US. As a consequence, there are more asbestos-related deaths recorded in Los Angeles than anywhere else in the country. There are a number of factors which provide an explanation for these grim statistics.
Nearly 65% of the city's housing was built between 1939 and 1979, which was hey day for asbestos production. Much of the city's infrastructure also dates to those years. Despite billions consumed by asbestos companies in civil litigation, their asbestos products were never recalled and the companies were never required to locate and abate their poison.
LA was home to over 20 plants where asbestos-containing thermal insulation and building products were manufactured. Many of the companies, such as WR Grace, US Gypsum, Johns Manville, Armstrong World Industries, Owens Corning Fiberglas and Pabco, eventually filed for bankruptcy protection due to mounting asbestos liabilities.
El Segundo Power Plant
LA generates most of its electricity from powerhouses that were built from the 1940’s through the 1970’s. These powerhouses continue to dot the coastline in such places as El Segundo, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, Seal Beach and Los Alamitos. Powerhouses were huge consumers of asbestos insulation, fireproofing, cement, gaskets, etc.
LA is home to a big patch of oil refineries, including Chevron, Union Oil, ARCO, Texaco, Shell, Occidental, Mobil and Tosco. Countless tons of asbestos were used on the hundreds of miles of heated piping and equipment at each refinery.
LA County was also home to a lucrative shipbuilding industry. One of most renowned shipyards in the county, the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, covered more than 200 acres and employed more than 17,000 during the height of its operations. Todd Pacific Shipyard Company also operated a large shipyard in San Pedro which built both naval and civilian ships. At its peak, the Todd San Pedro shipyard employed over 12,000 people.
Asbestos consumption peaked in LA and in the US as a whole in the late 1970s. However, asbestos cancers usually take 15 to 45 years to manifest in the human body. Many scientists predict that the rate of mesothelioma incidence, now at around 3,000 per year, won’t begin declining until 2020.
If you’re disturbed by the above facts, you should be. There are still miles of asbestos cement water pipe in use in LA and many other places across the country that has never been recalled. In asbestos lawsuits, asbestos company lawyers enjoy pointing out that every one of us has asbestos in our lungs, as if this is something we should find comforting (their real reason for doing this is to remove the focus from their client and shift blame to the competition, the environment, or mysterious forces).
For those in LA, the good news is that LA is home to one of the best mesothelioma surgical oncologists in the world, Dr. Robert Cameron of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Cameron has treated over 500 mesothelioma patients and quarterbacks each patient’s treatment program from diagnosis through treatment and recovery. He has shown promising results with a protocol using involving lung-sparing surgery, radiation and interferon. Click here for medical profiles of mesothelioma patients who have been treated by Dr. Cameron.
Other doctors who treat mesothelioma in LA are Dr. Kemp Kernstine, a thoracic surgeon at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, and Dr. Sant Chawla, an oncologist in Santa Monica. The USC Medical School also has a chemotherapy program for mesothelioma.
The Law Office of Roger G. Worthington has fought for the rights of Southern California victims of asbestos disease for nearly 20 years. The firm maintains its home in the Los Angeles harbor town of San Pedro, near many of the powerhouses, shipyards and refineries that have exposed thousands of hard-working Los Angelenos to asbestos over the last 60 years. The firm's founder, Roger Worthington, is a pioneer in funding asbestos cancer research and has recently funded the Punch Worthington Laboratory at UCLA, where research is being conducted under the supervision of Dr. Robert Cameron to find cures for asbestos disease.
To empower yourself with knowledge about asbestos treatment options and compensation rights, please call us at 800.831.9399 or visit our website at www.mesothel.com.