WORKER TELLS JURY ABOUT ASBESTOS 'SNOWSTORM'

Publication: THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 10/02/2002
Page: 2A
Headline: WORKER TELLS JURY ABOUT ASBESTOS 'SNOWSTORM'
Byline: CHARLES SHUMAKER
cshumaker@wvgazette.com

When Steve Hughart removed insulation from pipes at Union Carbide the aftermath sometimes reminded him of a winter storm, he told jurors in a Charleston asbestos trial Tuesday.

"It was like a snowstorm," he said.

Hughart, a union insulator who frequently worked at Union Carbide plants in the 1970s, said he and other workers taught each other about the dangers of asbestos.

"We did the best we could with what we knew about it at the time," Hughart said.

A second union insulation worker also described the dust when he used a brass hatchet to break away pieces of piping fitted with insulation.

"It was extremely dusty," Richard M. Knight Jr. said in a deposition read aloud Tuesday.

Knight worked with insulation at several different sites, including Union Carbide. He started in 1951 as an insulation mechanic and continued removing and installing insulation until 1990.

Charleston attorney William Schwartz, representing the plaintiffs, asked Hughart about other workers who were around the dust. That dust possibly contained asbestos fibers, plaintiffs' attorneys have said.

Lawyers for the thousands of plaintiffs remaining in the civil case continued presenting their case on Tuesday, the sixth day of trial against three companies who either manufactured asbestos products or installed the mineral in their facilities.

Circuit Judges Booker T. Stephens and Arthur Recht are presiding at the trial.

Union Carbide attorney Albert Parnell asked Hughart to clarify for jurors how often there was a snowstormlike scene.

"You're not telling this jury that there was a snowstorm everyday," Parnell asked. He then argued that the pipes were coated with a material that contained the asbestos. That dust wouldn't have been released until workers disturbed it, Parnell said.

Hughart, who worked in a number of different Union Carbide buildings, also told jurors there were other contractors and plant workers around when the dust clouds would be released.

When the insulation hit the floor, the dust from it would spread, Hughart said. He said the dust was most severe when the insulation was dropped from pipes farther from the ground.

Schwartz asked Hughart to describe how the dust spread in windy weather.

"You can imagine it blew dust all over the place," Hughart said.

But he didn't realize how serious asbestos was until a half-dozen co-workers died in one year, he said.

More than 250 companies settled claims before the trial began last week. Only AmChem, Union Carbide, now Dow Chemical, and Exxon-Mobil remain in the case.

To contact staff writer Charles Shumaker, use e-mail or call 348-1240.