Decades After Asbestos Exposure, WV Workers Pay the Price for Fragmented Records
West Virginia’s identity has always been bound to the industries that powered the country. Generations of residents mined coal, produced chemicals, generated electricity, built infrastructure, and answered the call to serve in uniform. Many of those jobs carried a hidden cost – decades later – in the form of asbestos-related lung cancer. And for far…
Read MoreUnion Carbide in West Virginia: A Legacy of Industry and Asbestos Exposure
For much of the twentieth century, Union Carbide Corporation stood as one of the most significant industrial employers in West Virginia. Its plants shaped the economy of the Kanawha Valley, drew thousands of workers into chemical manufacturing, and helped establish the region as a national center of the petrochemical industry. However, the very facilities that…
Read MorePhilip Sporn Power Station and Asbestos Exposure
American Electric Power, working through its subsidiaries Appalachian Power Company and Ohio Power Company, constructed the Philip Sporn Plant in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The facility was named for Philip Sporn, the engineer who became president of AEP on May 22, 1947, and who led the company until his retirement in 1961. Sporn…
Read MoreThousands Support Petition to Ban Asbestos; No Loopholes or Exemptions
Nearly a decade after the launch of the Change.org petition titled “Ban Asbestos in the U.S. Now — Without Loopholes or Exemptions,” nearly 150,000 supporters continue to stand behind one simple demand: a complete U.S. asbestos ban with no industry exemptions. Petition supporters have consistently demanded three things: no exemptions for chrysotile asbestos, no loopholes…
Read MoreRecent Studies Show Increase in Mesothelioma Among Younger Patients
For decades, mesothelioma has been viewed as a disease affecting older men, typically those who spent their careers in shipyards, construction sites, power plants, or manufacturing facilities where asbestos was widely used. Because of the disease’s long latency period, often 20 to 50 years between exposure and diagnosis, most patients are well into their 60s,…
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