For over sixty years, Vanderbilt Minerals mined talc from New York-based mines and sold it to a wide range of industries. The company’s talc has been blamed for thousands of cases of malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos-related disease. Although Vanderbilt Minerals has consistently maintained that its talc is not contaminated with asbestos, juries across the country have disagreed with this assessment and have awarded millions of dollars to those who’ve suffered as a result of exposure to the company’s product.
Vanderbilt Minerals History and Asbestos
Vanderbilt Minerals is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Connecticut-based R.T. Vanderbilt Company, a privately held manufacturer and distributor of minerals for the petroleum, rubber, plastics, paint, pharmaceutical, ceramic, agricultural, personal care, and household industries.[1]
The company got its start in 1916 when Robert Thurlow Vanderbilt opened an office on East 42nd Street in New York City. Armed with $1,000, a $24,000 family loan, and a contract to sell clay to the papermaking industry, Vanderbilt leveraged his skills to offer other products to diverse applications. He introduced mineral fillers for the rubber industry and followed that with the establishment of Vanderbilt Research Laboratories to develop new uses for clay and other minerals. The company’s products were used as extender pigments in coatings and as fillers for primers and paints, and its discoveries changed the way that paper was pigmented, making it whiter and brighter.[1]
In the 1930s the company began working with plastics, particularly with vinyls, which it anticipated would become useful alternatives to rubber. In 1940 the company purchased Gouverneur Talc mine, and in 1945 almost all Vanderbilt products were diverted into items for the war effort. In 1955, the company established the Gouverneur Mineral Division, a mining and milling operation in the Gouverneur district of New York State in St. Lawrence County.[1] Shortly after, talc workers began reporting breathing problems and seeking compensation for illnesses including talcosis and malignant mesothelioma. In 1972, against the objections of Vanderbilt officials, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began to require that the tremolite talc being mined at the Gouverneur site be treated as if it were asbestos, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration agreed.[2]
In 1974, the Vanderbilt Company purchased an adjacent talc mine site from International Talc, and shortly thereafter the company faced compensation suits from International Talc’s former employees seeking disability assistance. A $1,122,248 settlement was negotiated.[2]
]Vanderbilt continued mining and selling talc until 2008, when it ceased production and sold off the last of its inventory, in part because, over the past several decades, thousands of lawsuits had been filed against the company in jurisdictions across the United States. All claimed that talc and silica mined and sold by the company contained asbestos and led to them contracting asbestos-related diseases including malignant mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, and asbestosis.[3]
Today, R.T. Vanderbilt Holding Company, Inc. is a world leader in supplying industry with minerals, as well as a privately held manufacturer and distributor that supplies a wide range of products to a variety of industries. Its subsidiaries include chemical manufacturing facilities, mining and milling facilities, and technical and marketing development services with international clients.[1]
How Was Asbestos-contaminated Vanderbilt Minerals Talc Used?
Vanderbilt Minerals mined, milled, and sold talc from upstate New York. Unlike the softer talc mined in Vermont and throughout Europe and sold for use in cosmetic and consumer products, the talc from Gouverneur, New York was used for industrial purposes including the manufacture of floor tile, paint products, and ceramics. It was also used to keep products or materials from sticking to one another in the manufacturing or packaging process, including as a dusting powder in molds for plastic and steel products so that parts could easily be removed after they’d been fabricated.
Who Is at Risk of Exposure to Asbestos from Vanderbilt Minerals Talc?
There have already been many victims of exposure to asbestos mined, milled, and sold by Vanderbilt Minerals. Starting with the company’s own employees, the victims have included miners, those who worked in the mill, those who packaged the material, and those who transported it via rail lines or truck. Additionally, anybody involved in the maintenance and repair of the equipment used in the mines or mills was exposed to asbestos in the company’s contaminated talc, and their family members were at risk for secondary exposure to the carcinogen that was carried home on their clothing, hair, or skin.
Beyond those involved in Vanderbilt Minerals supply chain, employees of tile companies, paint companies, and manufacturers of all types of products used Vanderbilt Minerals’ asbestos-contaminated talc to make sure that the components that they manufactured slipped easily out of their molds. In addition to those who worked directly with the product, mixing it into paints or pouring it into molds, those responsible for cleaning the equipment or the floors of the factories were exposed to the toxic material, and so were those responsible for inspecting the products, packaging them for shipping, and using the products themselves.
The Link Between Industrial Talcum Powder and Mesothelioma
Talc is a mineral that is frequently found near deposits of asbestos, and mining for one generally results in cross-contamination. Though Vanderbilt Minerals continues to insist that its talc contains no asbestos and that there is no link between exposure to its products and asbestos-related illnesses, numerous studies have linked talc to malignant mesothelioma, and others have confirmed the notable prevalence of mesothelioma in the area.
Writing in The Annals of Occupational Hygiene, researchers noted that “Gouverneur, home of several talc mines” had been identified among the ten in the United States with the highest mesothelioma mortality up to 1981 for both men and women and that the incidence of mesothelioma was high regardless of whether the talc the victims were exposed to had contained asbestos. Seeing a direct link between exposure to talc and the rare form of cancer, they called for further investigation.[4]
Asbestos Lawsuits Filed Against Vanderbilt Mineral
Vanderbilt Mineral Company has been named as a defendant in thousands of mesothelioma and asbestos lawsuits and has been directed to pay millions of dollars in compensation to victims. Some of the most notable cases include:
- The family of John Peckham, a temporary worker who had been exposed to Vanderbilt Minerals’ talc while scraping and removing window frames in the early 1960s, was awarded $20 million in damages,with 50% of the liability assigned to the mineral company and 50% to the other defendant, DAP, Inc. The jury had been shown more than 250 pieces of evidence, much of which indicated that the defendants had been aware of the dangers of asbestos.
- In 2015, a New York jury awarded $10.55 million to the family of Richard Chisholm, an Indiana man who died of mesothelioma at the age of 52 from asbestos exposure from talc mined and sold by R.T. Vanderbilt, Inc. Mr. Chisholm had been exposed to asbestos during a summer job in high school working for an Ohio factory that had used Vanderbilt talc as one of the raw materials to make ceramic products.[5]
- A Connecticut jury ordered R.T. Vanderbilt Holding Company to pay $15 million in damages to the family of Nicholas Barone, a father of three who died in 2023 at the age of 81. Mr. Barone was exposed to Vanderbilt Talc which had been provided to the General Electric plastics plant in Pittsford, Massachusetts where he had worked.
- The family of a California man who sued Vanderbilt Minerals and Imerys Talc America for his death from malignant mesothelioma at the age of 72 was awarded $17.5 million in compensatory damages by a California jury. Richard Booker’s exposure occurred over decades of mixing paint that contained the companies’ talc. The jury allocated 60 percent of the responsibility for his death to Vanderbilt Minerals. In addition to its 40 percent responsibility, Imerys was also assessed an additional $4.6 million in punitive damages.[6]
What to Do if You Were Exposed to Asbestos in Vanderbilt Minerals Talc?
There have already been thousands of asbestos claims filed against Vanderbilt Minerals over the last several years, and with the company having sold its talc through the year 2008, there will likely be many more victims diagnosed with the disease in the future. Malignant mesothelioma has an extremely long latency period, and it is common for it to take five to six decades after exposure for symptoms to appear.
If you or someone you love was exposed to Vanderbilt Minerals talc, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the early signs of mesothelioma, to be vigilant, and to let your physician know so that they can be on the lookout as well: Many of the earliest indications of the disease are similar to those of extremely benign sicknesses, and the sooner mesothelioma is diagnosed, the better your chance of extending survival.
If you are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, or any other asbestos-related disease, you may be eligible to file a personal injury lawsuit against Vanderbilt Minerals as well as any other company that was negligent in having failed to warn you of the dangers of their products. The best place to start is with a consultation with an experienced asbestos attorney who can identify all of your options and provide you with guidance as you navigate the challenges ahead.
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