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The power plant and oil refinery industries were prominent in Utah during the 20th century when workers may have been exposed to asbestos. These sectors often used insulation in their buildings and machinery that contained asbestos due to the material’s heat-resistant and chemical-resistant properties. The oil industry used asbestos in storage tanks, pipes and other places to stop fires that may break out around the highly flammable liquid. Workers who operated, installed or repaired this contaminated equipment could have inhaled the fibers.
Asbestos was also used in industrial sectors, such as steel and copper refineries, mineral refineries, canning factories and sugar manufacturers. These facilities used asbestos to insulate their equipment and protect workers from fire outbreaks.
Utah also has seven known naturally-occurring deposits of asbestos and mines. Millard County’s Tremolite No. 1 Mine extracted asbestos where miners removed tremolite fibers. Additional deposits of calcite and pyrite throughout the state contained tremolite and actinolite asbestos fibers. In many mines, these fibers were mined along with other minerals. Mining is one of the state’s most prosperous occupations, but early mining may have exposed many workers in jeopardy for inhaling asbestos. Miners often released asbestos fibers while mining for asbestos or other minerals. However, some workers did not directly come in contact with asbestos while mining but still may have been exposed due to operating mining equipment.
W.R. Grace’s notorious vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana was responsible for sending asbestos-contaminated vermiculite around the country. For more than 40 years, asbestos from the Libby mine was processed at two facilities in Salt Lake City, which remained open until the mid-1980s and could have exposed workers to asbestos while performing their jobs.
Utah Mesothelioma Diagnoses
There were at least 229 Utah residents were diagnosed with mesothelioma between 1999 and 2015. There is a slightly higher mesothelioma incident rate in the central and western counties of the state than in other parts of the state. There were more than 91 Utah residents who diagnosed with asbestosis and over 964 Utah residents who were diagnosed with non-mesothelioma lung cancer between 1999 and 2013. The cities where the majority of diagnoses occurred are in:
Salt Lake City, Provo, West Valley City, Ogden, West Jordan, St George, and Sandy.
Utah Asbestos Laws
Utah has a series of laws related to asbestos that can affect litigation. These laws determine when a lawsuit must be filed, what the plaintiff must prove, which plaintiffs can pursue a cause of action and what information plaintiffs must disclose during the litigation process. Some of the most important Utah laws that may impact mesothelioma litigation include the following:
Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations is the time limit that a plaintiff has to file a lawsuit based on a certain cause of action. Utah has a specific statute of limitations for asbestos cases. The time limit to bring a mesothelioma or other asbestos-related condition is three years from the time when the victim discovered or reasonably should have discovered the injury or damages, whichever is later. The statute of limitations is two years from the victim’s date of death for a wrongful death lawsuit.
Court Exposure Standard
Asbestos cases are often brought on the state level. Each state has a different standard for what must be proved to show the link between the plaintiff’s exposure and injury. The most common standard is the Lohrmann test, which requires showing that the defendant’s product was a substantial factor in the plaintiff developing mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease. The Utah courts have found that “any exposure” testimony is insufficient to establish the causal link between the defendant’s product and the plaintiff’s injury. The court has used the Lohrmann test and held that scientific support may be present when it shows the actual level of exposure necessary to cause mesothelioma, scientific data involving the amount of asbestos, the plaintiff’s exposure to the defendant’s product or the type of asbestos fibers the defendant’s products may have contained.
Asbestos Litigation Transparency Act
Utah has a specific law regarding asbestos trusts, called the Asbestos Litigation Transparency Act. The purpose of the law was to ensure that companies and bankruptcy trusts pay their fair share of recoveries and protect jobs by ensuring that companies are not bankrupted due to abuse of the system. The law determines how the plaintiff must disclose filing a claim against an asbestos trust when litigation is pending, the proper use of materials during the discovery process, how to handle identifying asbestos trusts by the defendant, when the court will delay the proceedings for a claim to be processed and the penalties for not complying with the law.
Recovering the Costs of Medical Screening
The Utah Supreme Court established specific criteria that the plaintiff must meet in order to be awarded the costs of medical screening. Claimants must be able to show that they were exposed to a toxic substance and this exposure was caused by the defendant’s negligence. This exposure must have been to the degree that it results in an increased risk of a serious disease, illness or injury. There must be a test that can test early detection and this detection is beneficial and that a qualified physician has prescribed based on scientific principles.
Utah Definition of Asbestos
Utah defines asbestos as “asbestiform varieties of: (a) chrysotile (serpentine); (b) crocidolite (riebeckite); (c) amosite (cummingtonite-grunerite); (d) anthophyllite; (e) tremolite; or (f) actinolite. Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 3, 2008 General Session.”
Utah State Asbestos Regulatory Agencies
The Utah state asbestos regulatory agency is the Utah Department of Environmental Quality Asbestos Program. Before moving any structure that is regulated by state or federal law, the project owner or contractor must provide notice to the Utah Division of Air Quality at least 10 days before commencing work by submitting a particular form. Before demolishing any building, an asbestos inspector that is certified in Utah must complete an asbestos inspection report. These rules may apply even if asbestos was not found in the structure. If asbestos is found during the inspection, a certified asbestos company must remove it before demolishing the property. They apply to commercial structures and any residential structure or outbuilding larger than 100 square feet.
Utah Asbestos Site Exposure List
Some of the public locations, military operations, natural deposits of asbestos and commercial sites linked with possible asbestos use in Utah include the following:
- Hill Air Force Base – Salt Lake City
- Vermiculite Intermountain – Salt Lake City
- Intermountain Products – Salt Lake City
- Big Pass Group Mines – Beaver County
- Highland Boy Mine – Salt Lake County
- Pack Rat Tremolite Prospect – Box Elder County
- King David Mine – Beaver County
- Empire Mining Company – Park City
- Bingham Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company – Salt Lake City
- Kennecott Utah Copper – Salt Lake City
- Little Bell Consolidated Mining Company – Summit County
- Metropolitan Hall of Justice – Salt Lake City
- Salt Lake City Circuit Court – Salt Lake City
- Salt Lake City District Court – Salt Lake City
- Salt Lake Metro Jail – Salt Lake City
- Utah Power and Light – Salt Lake City
- Big Sandwash Reservoir Hydro – Upalco
- Bloomington Power Plant – St. George
- Castle Gate/Carbon Power Plant – Carbon County
- Desert Power LP – Magcorp County
- Ephraim City Hydro Plant No. 3 – Ephraim
- Gadsby Power Plant – Salt Lake County
- Heber Light and Power Company – Heber
- Hunter Power Plant – Emery County
- Huntington Power Plant – Emery County
- Intermountain Power Project – Delta
- Salt Lake City Refinery – Salt Lake City
- Intermountain Waste Oil Refinery – Bountiful
- Lagoon Cogeneration Facility – Farmington
- Lake Side Power Plant – Vineyard
- Millcreek Power Generation – St. George
- Naughton Power Plant – Ogden
- Nebo Power Station – Playson
- Quail Creek Hydro Plant #1 – Hurricane
- Sunnyside Cogen Associates – Sunnyside
- Standard Oil Refinery – Salt Lake City
- Wasatch Energy Systems – Layon
- North Salt Lake Refinery – Salt Lake City
- Woods Cross Refinery – Salt Lake City
- Geneva Steel Mill – Vineyard
- Stauffer Chemical – Vernal
- Chevron Chemical – Salt Lake City
- Sharon Steel Corporation – Midvale
Utah Asbestos Bankruptcy Trusts
Many asbestos companies were sued by hundreds or thousands of people after their products were connected to individuals’ development of mesothelioma, asbestosis and other asbestos-related conditions. As a result, many of these companies declared bankruptcy. As part of their bankruptcy settlement, some of these companies established trust funds that were responsible for paying on claims for individuals harmed by their products. When an asbestos trust is available, a person can make a claim against the trust without going through the entire process of litigation.
There are no known asbestos trusts that were established by companies headquartered in Utah or that are administered by trustees out of Utah. However, many companies that formed these trusts had operations in many states, possibly including Utah. A Utah mesothelioma lawyer can explain if one of these trusts may be available for you, based on your particular circumstances.
Utah Mesothelioma and Asbestos Lawsuits
Most mesothelioma lawsuits in Utah do not wind up at trial. Many times, these cases settle well before trial for an undisclosed amount of money. One notable exception to this was a case in the public news where a Clearfield woman was awarded more than $5.2 million by a Salt Lake City jury in 2010 after she developed mesothelioma by being exposed to a joint compound product that contained asbestos in it. The case was against Union Carbide Corp. and other defendants. The defendant appealed the decision, but the appellate court affirmed the decision, finding that there was sufficient expert testimony to support the award.
Utah Mesothelioma Law Firms
There are few law firms that represent Utah mesothelioma victims, so contact our lawyers as soon as possible to get a free case evaluation and to learn more about your legal options.
