Opinion ID: 3134558
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Unarco’s and Johns-Manville’s Plant Operations

Text: Additional evidence relating to plaintiffs’ parallel-conduct theory included testimony that Unarco and Johns-Manville failed to warn their employees of the health hazards of asbestos exposure and failed to protect their employees from these hazards. Employees who worked in Unarco’s Bloomington plant during the fifties and sixties testified that Unarco never told them or other employees that breathing asbestos dust posed any health risks. These employees also described conditions in the Bloomington plant before Owens Corning purchased it from Unarco in 1970. According to these employees, the plant used raw asbestos supplied by Johns-Manville to make insulation and other products. Dust from the plant operations was released into the air of the plant. The dust in the air was visible and covered surfaces in the plant. Ron Thacker, plaintiff Vernadine Thacker’s son, testified that he worked with his father in the plant and, when they left the plant, there was dust on their clothing and hair. These employees further testified that Bloomington plant employees were not required to wear respirators. One employee stated that he had a respirator, but employees did not use them frequently because they had difficulty obtaining filters for the respirators, and the filters needed to be changed every day. There was some dust-collection equipment in the plant, but it did not collect all of the dust because there was always dust in the air. Unarco had no ventilation equipment and no industrial hygienist. Unarco also did not require employees to get annual chest X rays. According to the industrial hygiene survey Owens Corning conducted during the summer after it purchased the Unarco plant, atmospheric conditions in the Bloomington plant were “unbelievably bad,” and exposures to asbestos were “excessive.” A Johns-Manville employee testified that, during the period 1946 to 1961, Johns-Manville did not give its employees warnings about the health hazards of asbestos. Johns-Manville did require employees to undergo periodic physical examinations, which included a chest X ray. These X rays were read, however, by Johns-Manville’s own doctors and treated as the property of the company. It was Johns-Manville’s policy not to inform an employee that his X ray showed asbestosis or another lung disease unless the disease became disabling. This policy did not change until the early 1970s.