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Kansas Liberty: 06 October 2008
Olathe widow seeks damages from past employers, others after doctor found asbestos in husband's lungs
Kansas woman sues 192 businesses for asbestos exposure
An Olathe, Kan. resident has filed a lawsuit against 192 corporations on behalf of her husband who died of lung cancer in August.
Rosie Mae Solze Rankin said when her husband Jack had part of his lung removed because of lung cancer the doctor found asbestos, which she argues he was exposed to while working as a boilermaker and pipe fitter at various industrial plants.
Because she wasn't able to pinpoint the source of the exposure, Rankin filed seeking punitive damages against the Ferris Kimball Company, Sprinkmann Sons Corporation, Sprinkmann Insulation and Young Insulation Group of St. Louis, Mo.
“Jack worked about twenty years at a whole bunch of different places,” Rankin told Kansas Liberty.
Rankin was diagnosed in May 2008 and died at the end of August. The lawsuit was filed Oct.1 in the Madison County, Illinois, Circuit Court.
According to The Madison-St. Clair Record, Rankin is seeking sums in excess of $200,000, economic damages in excess of $150,000, and compensatory damages in excess of $150,000.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a ban on most asbestos-containing products in 1989. After the regulation was overturned in 1991, flooring felt, rollboard, and corrugated, commercial or specialty paper continued to be banned and any "new uses" of asbestos in products have also been banned.
According to the U.S. Department of labor approximately 1.3 million employees in the construction and general industry are exposed to asbestos with the heaviest exposures occurring in the construction business.
-Holly Smith
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