Founded in 1887, The American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) grew to encompass mining, smelting, and refining operations[1] until it became a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico in 1999.[2] In 2005, ASARCO filed for bankruptcy protection, and in 2009, the ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust was created as part of the ASARCO Chapter 11 Joint Plan of Reorganization.[3]
ASARCO History and Asbestos
The American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) was founded by Robert Safford Towne in 1887 as a mining complex in parts of Colorado and a lead smelter in Montana. Two years later it expanded to El Paso, Texas where a lead plant was built. It was El Paso’s largest industrial company for a time, eventually moving its base of operations to Tucson, Arizona.
ASARCO’s primary operations involved mining and processing copper in open-pit mines, with operations in Nebraska, Alabama, Colorado, Texas, Idaho, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Washington, and Utah, as well as in Mexico. It also acquired multiple subsidiaries in Canada, including asbestos mines and the Cement Asbestos Products Company (CAPCO), which manufactured various cement underground pipe products that used asbestos as a binding agent. CAPCO was ultimately sold in 1994.[4]
ASARCO was responsible for extreme levels of pollution that jeopardized the health and well-being of those who worked at their sites or were nearby. By the late 1990s, it found itself subject to litigation over pollution, toxic torts, and asbestos litigation.
The scope of ASARCO’s liabilities included environmental lawsuits representing a combined potential of $1.4 billion, though most were settled. The company also faced 1,380 toxic tort claims linked to operations nationwide. An estimated $2.3 million in settlements were paid to residents of El Paso for violations including lead poisoning in children.[5] The company also faced millions of dollars worth of asbestos-related claims related to the asbestos mining and asbestos cement pipe operations of its subsidiaries, which were sold in 1994.
In 1999, the company was acquired by Grupo Mexico, which formed Americas Mining Corporation (AMC), which included ASARCO and was headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2005, the company sought a permanent injunction under section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code in which all asbestos-related claims will be channeled to a trust for an equitable resolution and payment.[4]
ASARCO’s Role in Asbestos Exposure
Though ASARCO has an extensive history of environmental negligence in its smelting and mining operations, those exposures largely involved lead and copper. It was not until the company initiated a $32.5 million project that involved turning the two-mile-long Black Lake in southern Quebec, into one of the world’s largest open-pit asbestos mine that it became involved in asbestos. Its subsidiary, Lake Asbestos of Quebec, lowered the lake over 200 feet, drained it, and began mining in mid-1958. Its operations increased the world’s asbestos supply by 7%, producing approximately 100,000 tons of asbestos each year and increasing Canadian asbestos production by 10%.[6]
Shortly after investing in asbestos mining, ASARCO acquired Cement Asbestos Products Co (CAPCO). The company produced asbestos cement in both Alabama and Arkansas until it was sold in the mid-1990s.
Workers at Risk of Asbestos Exposure Caused by ASARCO
Asbestos is a highly carcinogenic material. It is fibrous and breaks down easily, and once airborne its fibers are easily inhaled. The particles that are not inhaled eventually settle on surfaces, including the hair, skin, and clothing of people who are nearby. Once these fibers are inhaled or ingested, their needlelike ends easily become embedded in the cells they come into contact with. This is how malignant mesothelioma tumors form, as well as other asbestos-related diseases including lung cancer and asbestosis.
The damage caused by asbestos manifests in different ways depending upon numerous factors. The most deadly outcome of asbestos exposure is malignant pleural mesothelioma, a disease with a latency period that is so long that it often takes decades for symptoms to appear. Once they do, the disease is so far advanced that there is little that can be done.
Anybody who is exposed to asbestos is at risk for an asbestos-related illness, though those with the greatest concentrations and longest periods of exposure are at the greatest risk. Still, even those who experience secondary exposure from asbestos fibers carried into the homes of loved ones who work with the material have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases.
The employees of Lake Asbestos of Quebec and CAPCO were at the greatest risk from asbestos exposure, but anybody who came into contact with their asbestos or asbestos-contaminated materials, or who might have been exposed through secondary exposure, was vulnerable. This could include:
Mine employees
Factory employees
Asbestos Lawsuits Against ASARCO
ASARCO faced 95,000 asbestos claims arising from these two subsidiaries. Collectively, the claims were valued at approximately $2.66 billion.[7]
Among the many mesothelioma lawsuits filed against ASARCO was a filing seeking compensation for the wrongful death of Secundino Medina, whose father began working full-time as a laborer at an ASARCO smelting plant in El Paso, Texas in 1940 or 1941, and who later worked at the plant himself. The victim’s family accused the company of negligence for both his second-hand asbestos exposure from his father’s work and for exposure to asbestos within the smelting plant. The jury hearing the case assigned 25% of the liability for his illness and death to ASARCO.[8]
Among the thousands of lawsuits filed against ASARCO were those filed by employees of their subsidiary CAPCO claiming negligent occupational asbestos exposure, and claims filed by workers and the families of workers who were exposed to the company’s asbestos and asbestos-contaminated products after ASARCO sold them to their employers.
ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
As part of ASARCO’s Chapter 11 Joint Plan of Reorganization (the “Plan”), the ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust was created to process, liquidate, and pay valid asbestos personal injury claims. The Trust Distribution Procedure resolves claims either through litigation or through the trust. It establishes a schedule of eight asbestos-related diseases, seven of which have presumptive medical and exposure requirements and specific liquidated values, and six of which have anticipated average values and caps on their liquidated values.[9]. It also establishes procedures for both premises liability claims and personal injury claims.
The ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust Asbestos Trust was created and funded with over $900 million in assets, including more than $650 million in cash plus a $280 million secured note from Reorganized ASARCO. In addition, the Asbestos Trust received $27.5 million to fund the operating expenses of the Asbestos Trust. Through December 31, 2023, 501,464 unliquidated asbestos personal injury claims had been submitted to the ASARCO asbestos trust. Since inception, not including premises claims, the Trust has paid a total of $650,023,918 for asbestos personal injury claims. [10]
How to Seek Asbestos Compensation
The ASARCO trust fund is active and accepting claims and anticipates continuing to administer the trust as more victims of asbestos exposure are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.
You may be eligible for compensation if you are diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease and can trace exposure to one of ASARCO’s subsidiaries. The best way to file a claim is with the help of an asbestos or mesothelioma lawyer.
These experts can determine where and how you were exposed to asbestos, the companies responsible, the trusts for which you are eligible, and other options for seeking compensation.
