The Timken Company, a major railway component manufacturer based out of Canton, Ohio, built a specialized roller bearing production facility in Columbus, Ohio in 1958. At the Timken Company’s peak, thousands of people worked at the Columbus and Canton factories, producing a variety of products, mostly for the growing railroad industry.
The Timken Company operated in the Columbus, Ohio plant until 2001, manufacturing ball and roller bearings, and later seals and gaskets. Business was good, but the workplace proved to be a toxic hotspot, full of asbestos, endangering thousands of employees each year, and causing widespread health issues that are still wreaking havoc to former Timken employees today.
Hundreds of former Timken Company workers have suffered asbestos-related illnesses as a result of the unsafe workplace, and several subsequent asbestos exposure lawsuits have been filed.
Joe Lyon is a highly-rated Cincinnati asbestos lawyer representing plaintiffs nationwide in a wide variety of toxic tort and mesothelioma claims.
Railroad Industry Asbestos Risk
Working in the railroad industry comes with inherent health risks, the most deadly of which is a widespread exposure to asbestos, which was used in the manufacturing of railway and locomotive components until the 1970s.
Used for its strength and resistance to heat, asbestos filled the railways, and many institutions involved in keeping the railroad running. Workers were unknowingly exposed through various locomotive parts and building structures. As insulation and components broke down with time and use, asbestos fibers were released into the air and inhaled into the lungs of factory workers.
Once asbestos fibers are inhaled they become lodged in the surrounding tissue of the lungs and remain. The fibers commonly cause inflammation, scarring and lead to related illnesses like lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma.
