The Saint Regis Paper Mill was originally established as a lumber mill in 1928, on the Tacoma tide flats. In 1947, St. Regis expanded operations to add a paper mill and brown paper bag plant. By 1951, the mill was producing 135,000 tons of wood pulp each year. In 1985, Simpson Kraft purchased the Tacoma mill, which is still in operation.
During the mid-20th century, when St. Regis operated the Tacoma mill, the paper industry used asbestos in complicated paper mill machinery. Maintenance workers would sometimes be required to open and enter the large mechanisms that produced paper and wood pulp, exposing them to harmful asbestos fibers. A 2002 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that pulp and paper industry maintenance workers were more likely to develop lung cancer than workers in other occupations. A 2005 study of Italian paper mill workers also found that workers who operated paper drying machines may have been exposed to asbestos.
In 1947, when the St. Regis mill was rebuilt and expanded, asbestos was a common construction material valued for a number of uses including pipe insulation, ceiling and floor tiles, industrial adhesives, and many other applications. Asbestos containing materials are most dangerous when they are friable, meaning that they crumble easily when disturbed, creating small inhalable fibers. In addition to exposure from the mill’s machinery, mill workers who encountered crumbling or exposed materials containing asbestos may have been exposed to these dangerous fibers.
Former St. Regis employees and their loved ones may have been exposed to asbestos during the course of their employment at the mill. Asbestos litigation firm Bergman Draper Oslund won a $977,625 award on behalf of a man exposed from his father’s work clothes that he had brought home for laundering. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a deadly form of lung cancer linked to asbestos exposure, at age 58.
Some of the dangers associated with asbestos exposure were understood as early as the 1930s. By the 1960s, a definitive link had been established between asbestos fibers and lung cancer. Unfortunately, many employers and manufacturers continued to use asbestos without proper safety equipment until the late 1970s. While safety regulations were delayed, untold numbers of workers and their families were placed at risk of serious harm. If you or a loved one worked at Tacoma’s St. Regis mill and suffered harm as a result of asbestos exposure, you may be eligible for compensation. Call Bergman Draper Oslund today, for a no-cost, no-obligation consultation.