Owens-Illinois worker claims asbestos exposure
ames Anderson, a former mold-maker at Owens-Illinois Glass in Alton filed a suit against 13 defendant corporations claiming asbestos exposure caused his lung cancer.
James Anderson says that he worked at Owens from 1954 to 1993.
The defendants include A.W. Chesterton, John Crane, Goodyear, Owens-Illinois and Strange and Coleman Inc.
Anderson claims the defendants failed to exercise ordinary care and caution for his safety by including asbestos in their products even though it was completely foreseeable that people working with and around asbestos would inhale, ingest or otherwise absorb great amounts of asbestos.
He says that the defendants included asbestos in their products though they were aware of the fact that asbestos fibers would have a highly detrimental effect on the health of people absorbing them. They included asbestos in their products when adequate substitutes were available. They failed to provide any warnings to people working with or around asbestos and to conduct tests on asbestos-containing products in order to determine the hazards to workers, he said.
According to Anderson, the defendants deliberately or with a foolhardy disregard for his safety, included asbestos in their products when they knew or should have known that the asbestos fibers would have a toxic, poisonous and highly noxious effect upon his health. He also claims they failed to provide adequate warning to people working with and around the products of the dangers of inhaling, ingesting or otherwise absorbed fibers in them and failed to provide adequate instruction concerning the safe methods of working with and around asbestos products.
Anderson™s wife Doris also is seeking damages for the impact her husbands illness has had on her life.
"Defendants thus grievously injured and damaged this plaintiff in those particulars of support, devotion, care, society and consortium which she formerly prior to the injury of James received and now, because of the injury has lost," the complaint states.
Represented by Barry Julian of Alton, the Andersons are seeking at least $250,000 in compensatory damages, plus punitive and exemplary damages in excess of $100,000.
