A Louisiana electrician who worked as a sub-contractor at the chemical company’s factory in Plaquemine, Louisiana has become sick with mesothelioma cancer. The electrician pursued a trial against Dow chemical, claiming that he was exposed to asbestos fibers while working at the company’s plant.
The trial lasted four weeks and the jury determined that Dow Chemical was “responsible under theories of negligence and unreasonably dangerous premises.” As a result, the verdict awarded $6 million to the sick electrician.
The decision was based mainly in an allegation that Dow had acknowledged in the past that a subset of their employees could be at risk for developing mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer. However, despite that fact, they did not halt the use of the toxic material, thinking that it was more cost-effective to do so than to replace asbestos materials with something safer and more costly.
On the other side, Dow Chemical stands by their position that they were not responsible for the electrician’s illness and will fight to have the verdict reversed.
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