Thomas Wells ran a half marathon at age 60 and played recreational volleyball until age 63. At age 65, doctors diagnosed him with mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive lung cancer associated with asbestos exposure.
“I am in so much pain and I can only see things getting worse,” the former middle school teacher from Oregon said in a video affidavit recorded in March 2020, four months after her cancer diagnosis. he said. He died a day later.
Portions of Wells’ statement were reviewed Monday in federal court by the jury hearing Warren Buffett’s wrongful death case against BNSF Railway.
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Wells and the families of a second mesothelioma victim say they have contaminated Libby, Montana, with asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mined from nearby mines, and that vehicles in the remote town have remained unused for most of the last century. It accuses the railroad and its predecessor companies of transporting the base in boxcars. .
BNSF’s lawyers have denied the allegations and are scheduled to begin their defense on Tuesday. Railroad officials said they did not know the cargo was dangerous.
The cleanup of the contaminated rail yard in downtown Libby will be nearly complete in 2022.
Environmental remediation experts work at an asbestos removal site in Libby, Montana, on September 13, 2018. A lawsuit pending in federal court alleges that BNSF Railway knew that the vermiculite it was transporting through Libby from nearby mines was contaminated with asbestos. The railroad denies the charges. (Kurt Wilson/The Missoulian, via AP, File)
This case is the first to allege that BNSF exposed residents in the Libby area to asbestos fibers that can cause lung scarring and mesothelioma. It’s been nearly 25 years since federal authorities arrived in the area not far from the U.S.-Canada border following news reports that toxic asbestos dust was causing widespread death and illness among miners and their families. .
Numerous other lawsuits have been filed against BNSF by asbestos victims.
W.R. Grace & Co.’s mine, which operated on a mountaintop outside Libby, produced contaminated vermiculite that health officials say has sickened more than 3,000 people and killed hundreds. .
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the first-ever public health emergency in 2009 during a Superfund cleanup in Libby. It is one of the deadliest locations under the federal government’s pollution program. Last month, the agency banned the remaining asbestos from industrial use.
Wells said in a 2020 deposition that he believes he became ill while working for the U.S. Forest Service in the Libby area for about six months in 1976-1978 and 1981, respectively. Mr. Wells had never been to a vermiculite mine, he said, but he said: The wind is kicking up dust along the train tracks.
“It was dusty. Even if you wash your car, you have to wash it again right away,” Wells said.
The second plaintiff, Joyce Walder, played in the same area in her youth before dying of mesothelioma at age 66.
Chad Knight, an attorney for BNSF, said mine manager W.R. Grace repeatedly told his predecessors at the railroad that the product he was transporting through Libby was safe. Local authorities also believe vermiculite is safe, and railroads cannot legally refuse shipments, he said.
“We need to go back and look at what the information was at the time,” Knight told jurors in his opening statement last week. “The raw materials that came out of the mine were used all over town. No one suspected there was anything dangerous in the product.”
Mr. Knight also sought to cast doubt on whether the BNSF depot was the cause of the plaintiffs’ medical problems, since asbestos dust was prevalent in the Libby area when the mine was in operation.
Contaminated vermiculite was used on the Libby High School athletic field, the baseball field next to the train depot, as a soil amendment in home gardens, and as insulation in homes across the United States.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys told jurors that several insurance claims for large quantities of asbestos leaked from railroad cars in the 1970s and never made it to their destinations, as well as placards affixed to railroad cars in the late 1970s. An example was shown. It contained asbestos fibers and was intended to avoid creating dust.
Libby residents said they encountered vermiculite along the BNSF railroad tracks, where area children often played.
Stephen Compton, an expert for the plaintiffs who heads the private research lab MVA Scientific Consultants in Georgia, said asbestos fibers from vermiculite can be blown away by the wind or a passing train and can last “for a few days, depending on the conditions.” “It could remain airborne for several hours, if not at all.”
In testimony Friday, Sean Wells, Thomas Wells’ son, described his father as a “great teacher,” someone you could talk to about anything, and “just the best father” who coached sports teams.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about my dad and wish I could pick up the phone and call him,” Sean Wells said. “He wasn’t just our father. … He was our best friend. We did everything together.”
Walder passed away in October 2020, less than a month after his diagnosis.
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According to court records, she grew up in Libby and was exposed to microscopic acicular asbestos fibers while fishing or floating in a river that passed where conveyor belts loaded vermiculite onto train cars. It is possible that In addition, she may have been exposed by playing on the baseball field near the rail yard, walking along the railroad tracks, and spending time at the house of her friend who lived near the rail yard. She also returned to Libby to visit her family.
After being diagnosed, Walder underwent chemotherapy and surgery. During a follow-up visit, Walder’s family was told that the cancer had gotten worse and had come back.
“I hope no one ever has to see the light of hope disappear in the eyes of a parent or loved one, because it’s something they will never forget,” Walder’s daughter Chandra Zeckmeister said Monday. testified to.
