TEXAS MESOTHELIOMA LAWYERS

Texas is the largest state in the continental U.S., and is the country’s second-largest producer of oil. Many of the world’s major oil companies are based in Texas, including Conoco-Phillips, Exxon-Mobil, Halliburton, Valero, and Marathon Oil, and most major international companies have facilities in Texas. As a result, the Lone Star State is studded with oil wells, refineries, and petrochemical plants. There are offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and oil produced in Texas is shipped all over the country in fleets of tankers.

Workers in the Texas petroleum industry were heavily exposed to asbestos for most of the twentieth century. Machinery and equipment in refineries were heavily insulated; asbestos was used as a fire retardant throughout the industry; and many workers even wore asbestos gloves and safety suits. Likewise, asbestos materials were heavily used on oil tankers, and in the shipyards that serviced them. As a result, Texas industrial workers are at a high risk for mesothelioma.

Asbestos was also used in other Texas industries. Due to its long coastline, Texas has numerous shipyards and ship repair facilities in Gulf Coast cities like Houston, Galveston, and Port Arthur. Until the 1980s, oil tankers and other commercial and Navy vessels contained literal tons of asbestos materials, from insulation and fireproofing to gaskets and packing. As a result, shipyard workers and ships’ crews were heavily exposed to asbestos during shipbuilding and repair.

Other sources of asbestos exposure in Texas included chemical plants, metal works, power plants, and construction. Tragically, many Texas workers also brought asbestos home on their clothes without realizing it. These workers and their families are at a heightened risk of mesothelioma.

OCCUPATIONS AT RISK

Below is a list of occupations that put Texas workers at a known risk of asbestos exposure. If you worked in one of these occupations in the 1980s or earlier, there is a good chance that you were exposed to asbestos:

Aircraft Mechanics & Repairmen
Automobile Mechanics
Boilermakers
Chemical Plant Workers
Construction Workers
Electricians
Foundry Workers
Industrial Plant Workers
Insulators
Longshoremen and Stevedores
Oil Refinery Workers
Pipefitters
Plasterers
Power Plant Workers
Railroad Workers
Sheetmetal Workers
Shipyard Workers
U.S. Navy Veterans

JOB SITES WITH KNOWN ASBESTOS EXPOSURE

The following is a list of some of the Texas job sites where there is a documented use of asbestos products. If you or a family member worked at one of these places, you may be at a heightened risk of asbestos disease.

If you believe that you may have been exposed to asbestos at your own job, please contact a mesothelioma attorney for more information. There are many other job sites in Texas where asbestos was used.

Shipyards

American Bridge Shipyard (Orange)
AMFELS
Barbas Cut Docks
Bloodworth Bond
Brown Shipyard
Boats of Freeport
Galveston Docks
Houston Shipyards
Kane Shipbuilding
Naval Station Ingleside
Orange Shipbuilding
Port Adams Shipyard
Todd Shipyards
Trinity Marine Group

Oil and Refineries

Amoco Oil
American Oil Co.
Arco Refinery
Atlantic Refining Co.
Col-Tex Refining Co.
Cosden Petroleum
Exxon
Gulf Oil Corp.
Humble Oil
National Cylinder Gas
Phillips Petroleum Company
Shell Oil
Sinclair Oil
Standard Oil of Texas Refinery
Sun Oil, Jameson Plant
Tenneco Refinery
Texaco Oil
Texas City Refinery

Chemical Plants

Allied Chemical
Amoco Chemical
Atlas Chemicals
Celanese Chemical
Chemsafe Co.
Dow Chemical
Dupont Chemical
Houston Chemical Co.
Jefferson Chemical Co. Inc.
Liquid Carbonic
Mobil Chemical
Monsanto
Nalco Chemical Co.
Oxirane Chemical
Petro-Tex Chemical Corp.
Phillips Petroleum
Shell Chemical Company
Thiokol Chemical Corp.
Texaco Chemical
Union Carbide Corp.
United Rubber and Chemical Co.

Metal Works

Alcoa Aluminum
Aluminum Co. of America
American Smelting & Refinery Co.
American Zinc. Co. of Illinois
Armco Steel
Bethlehem Steel (Beaumont & Houston)
Lufkin Foundry & Machinery Co.
Reynolds Metal Co.
Texas Aluminum
Texas Foundry

Other sites

Alcoa Point
B&G Company
Cabot Corporation
Champion Paper & Fibre Co.
Chicago Bridge & Iron Co.
Diamond Alkali Co.
Diamond Shamrock
Ethyl Corp.
E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co.
Ford Motor Co.
Gebo Distributing Co. Inc.
General Motors Corp.
Gulf Coast S & S
Houston Lighting & Power Co.
Kelly AFB
LTV Vought Aeronautics
Monwell Materials Inc.
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.
PPG Industries
Proctor & Gamble Mfg. Co.
Tellepsen Construction Co.
Texaco Inc.
Texas Highway Department
Weld & Supply Company
Wisco Inc.

MESOTHELIOMA IN TEXAS

The high levels of asbestos used in Texas industries have taken their toll on the health of Texas workers, who have one of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the country. Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen, which is caused by asbestos exposure.

Like other asbestos diseases, mesothelioma has a long latency period. This means that a person usually develops mesothelioma long after the initial exposure to asbestos – usually between 10 and 50 years later. Due to this latency period, the number of Texas mesothelioma deaths continues to rise even though asbestos is seldom used in Texas today.

According to the Environmental Working Group, Texas has the fifth highest rate of asbestos disease in the country as of 2002. These deaths were highly concentrated in the cities of Houston, Beaumont, and Dallas. Between 1979 and 2002, at least 2,910 Texans died of mesothelioma or asbestosis.

TEXAS MESOTHELIOMA LAWYER

If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and you believe you were exposed to asbestos in Texas, it is important that you contact a skilled attorney with experience in asbestos litigation. In addition, time is of the essence, because you have a limited amount of time to file suit.