Koppers Company Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos Lawyers

Representing Koppers workers in cancer claims

The Lyon Firm is investigating Koppers asbestos exposure claims on behalf of former Pennsylvania, California and Texas employees. Koppers Company was known to produce benzene, coal tar, and use asbestos materials that may have caused cancer and other occupational lung diseases to those who spent time in their facilities.

Based out of Pittsburgh until the 1980s, Koppers is a producer of carbon compounds, chemicals, and treated wood products for the aluminum, railroad, specialty chemical, utility, rubber, steel, residential lumber, and agriculture industries. The company serves customers worldwide.  Koppers operates four primary businesses that includes performance Chemicals, railroad products, utility and industrial products, and carbon materials and chemicals.

In 1943, Koppers built a factory in Kobuta, Pennsylvania on the Ohio River to manufacture styrene-butadiene monomer, a building block used to make synthetic rubber. In 1951, the company built a plant in Texas to manufacture ethylbenzene, using as raw materials ethylene from the nearby Gulf Oil refinery, and benzene, which was a byproduct of the company’s coke ovens in Pennsylvania. These are severely toxic products if not handled cautiously.

Koppers did have instances in their company history that suggested work safety was not a priority. In 2001, the company had to close a wood treatment plant in California due to contamination of the 205 acre facility and the surrounding area. Chromium was found to have been alledgely leaked into the local water supply.

In addition to benzene, workers at Koppers may have been exposed to asbestos over the years. The material was likely used for insulation because of its heat and fire-resistant properties in the chemical production plants.

Ironically, asbestos was meant to protect workers from fire hazards but had the opposite effect as it was later found to be extremely carcinogenic. Cancers like mesothelioma, lung cancer, colon cancer and esophageal cancer are linked to asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma and asbestosis have a latency period as long as 20 to 50 years after a worker was first exposed.

Was I Exposed To Asbestos at Koppers?

Many chemical plants in the country once used asbestos to insulate piping and equipment. But the employers did not know that the materials were terribly toxic and put workers in danger of later falling ill. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that there is no safe level of exposure.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) warn that asbestos exposure can directly cause certain cancers to workers who handle or work closely with the materials. Maintenance staff, engineers, pipefitters, electricians and machine operators were most likely to be exposed at a Koppers facility.

Koppers Company plants in Warren, Hamilton and Youngstown, Ohio, as well as others around the country may have been filled with toxic materials that included benzene and asbestos. Cancer cases have been reported, including:

• Angiosarcoma
• Mesothelioma Cancer
• Asbestosis
• Lung Cancer
• Esophageal Cancer
• Colorectal Cancer
• Adenocarcinoma
• Pulmonary Fibrosis