Occidental Petroleum Corporation is a publicly traded U.S. based oil, gas and chemical corporation founded in California in 1920. As the name implies, Occidental Petroleum started out in the fuel and energy business. In 1968, the company expanded into the chemicals field when they acquired Hooker Chemical Company. In 1987 Occidental Petroleum moved its chemical […]
B.F. Goodrich Asbestos Exposure & Mesothelioma Risks In 1940, the B. F. Goodrich Company constructed a chemical factory on 53rd Street in Niagara Falls, New York, in order to produce its proprietary Geon polyvinyl chloride resin. The Niagara Falls plant employed around fifty people, and closed in 1971. Asbestos was a common industrial insulator for decades […]
American Cyanamid Company was founded in 1907 in West Paterson, New Jersey and focused on fertilizer production. Cyanamid is a compound of lime, carbide, and nitrogen used in fertilizer. American Cyanamid soon expanded into the chemical industry, utilizing asbestos in its products and at its facilities. By the mid-1970s, American Cyanamid had almost 100,000 employees […]
The Louis DeMarkus Corporation was founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1953 by Arnold Jacobowitz. Mr. Jacobowitz established his company after he purchased the DeMarkus Form (a carbon dioxide generation unit) from Hungarian physicist Louis DeMarkus. Mr. Jacobowitz opened the first DeMarkus Corporation manufacturing facility at 3080 Main Street in order to design and manufacture […]
Merck & Company is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Merck was founded in 1668 by the Merck family and was nationalized by the United States government in 1917, during World War I. Merck is most known for being the first pharmaceutical company to manufacture morphine. In 1953, Merck merged with Sharpe […]
The lawyers at Lipsitz, Ponterio & Comerford are very familiar with past conditions at Durez Plastics because, since 1985, we have represented many workers from the plant suffering from mesothelioma, lung cancer and other asbestos-related diseases. In representing former Durez workers, we have learned that some people who lived or worked on the outskirts of […]
The men and women who worked at Kodak Park were exposed to asbestos in numerous buildings and operations, including roll coating, silver recovery, plastic molding, paper manufacturing, paper sensitizing and the powerhouses. Asbestos also insulated the steam lines in every building throughout Kodak Park. Exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma or lung cancer. In recent […]
In 1946, O-Cel-O was founded on Leslie Street in Buffalo, New York, by former DuPont employees Jack Bitzer, Chester Hardt and Gerard Murray. The company manufactured artificial cellulose sponges for household use and was formed in order to take advantage of a shortage of natural sponges due to World War II and a sponge blight […]
The West Valley Reprocessing Plant is a nuclear facility located on 200 acres of land in the town of Ashford, New York. The plant reprocessed used nuclear fuel rods (a procedure which allows nuclear materials to be safely stored or destroyed). The plant operated from 1966 until 1977, and it included a nuclear fuel reprocessing […]
United States Bishop, California La Mesa, California Torrance, California Uravan, Colorado Alsip, Illinois East Chicago, Indiana Louisville, Kentucky Paducah, Kentucky Greensburg, Louisiana Hanhville, Louisiana Norco, Louisiana Taft, Louisiana Sault Saint Marie, Michigan Perth Amboy, New Jersey Niagara Falls, New York Tonawanda, New York Kitanning, Pennsylvania Peñuelas, Puerto Rico Cleveland, Ohio Marietta, Ohio Parma, Ohio Exeter, […]
Linde Air Products was founded in 1907, as the American subsidiary of German industrial gas manufacturer Linde AG. The original Linde plant was located on Chandler Street in Buffalo, New York. It was the first plant in the United States to manufacture liquid oxygen, and it also manufactured other industrial gases, such as acetylene, nitrogen […]
The Union Carbide Company was founded in Niagara Falls in 1898. At the time of its inception, Union Carbide was not only one of Niagara Falls’ first industrial firms, but it was also the nation’s largest producer of carbide products. Union Carbide occupied three major facilities in Western New York and employed roughly 5,000 people. […]
The Titanium Alloy Manufacturing Company (TAM) was founded in 1906, by Dr. Auguste Rossi, William Meredith and Andrew Thompson. Located on Hyde Park Boulevard in Niagara Falls, New York, the company originally manufactured powdered ferrocarbon titanate (an additive used in the steelmaking process) and titanium dioxide (a pigment used in the manufacture of white paint). […]
The Stauffer Chemical Company was located on Old Lewiston Road in Lewiston, New York. The plant was originally constructed in 1916 as the Niagara Smelting Company and acquired by Stauffer Chemical in 1942. Stauffer Chemical initially manufactured aluminum, but shortly the purchase of the Old Lewiston Road facility, the company began to manufacture industrial chemicals, […]
The Solvay Process Company was founded in 1881 by Rowland Hazard and William B. Cogswell. It was the first company in the United States to utilize the Solvay process for manufacturing sodium carbonate, which was invented in Belgium in 1861 by Ernest Solvay. Syracuse, New York, was selected for Solvay’s first plant because of its […]
Founded by Franklin Olin in 1892, Olin Industries began as a blasting powder company, which supplied powder to Midwestern coal fields. Olin’s success allowed for the company’s expansion into small arms ammunition and the formation of the Western Cartridge Company in 1898. By the 1950s Olin Industries product line included brass and other nonferrous alloys, […]
The Liquid Carbonic Corporation, originally known as the Liquid Carbonic Company, was established in 1888 in Terre Haute, Indiana. For over 50 years, Liquid Carbonic concentrated on the production and supply of carbon dioxide and equipment related to soda fountain and soft drink bottling. In 1914, Liquid Carbonic introduced a low-pressure filling system for bottled […]
Lipsitz, Ponterio & Comerford, LLC represents numerous former and retired Kodak workers, including a pipefitter, painter, millwright, carpenter, engineer, machine operator, mixer and skilled-trades helper in their legal claims for mesothelioma and lung cancer. In the process of representing these workers and their families, we have gathered a vast amount of information concerning the type […]
The Hooker Chemical Company is a name that is unfortunately synonymous with one of America’s largest and most tragic chemical disasters, Love Canal. It is estimated that between 1942 and 1975 Hooker Chemical disposed of 199,900 tons of chemical waste at four dump sites in Niagara Falls, NY. One of the most notorious sites, Love […]
Hooker Chemical’s plant in Niagara Falls, New York, once manufactured chemicals, including caustic soda and bleaches. Hooker Chemical’s facilities were heavily insulated with asbestos-containing insulation materials which acted as thermal insulators. Laborers who worked at Hooker Chemical and outside insulation contractors were hired to apply asbestos-containing insulation to pipes, steam traps, filters and chemical storage […]
Lipsitz, Ponterio & Comerford, LLC, represents numerous former and retired laborers who were employed at the Hooker Electrochemical Company (Hooker Chemical or Hooker Niagara) located in Niagara Falls, NY. In recent years, former employees of Hooker Chemical have developed and died of mesothelioma, various cancers, and other chemical and asbestos-related diseases. Hooker Chemical’s Niagara Falls, […]
In recent years, former employees of Carborundum have developed and died of mesothelioma, lung cancer and other asbestos-related diseases. Laborers employed at both the Buffalo Avenue and Walmore Road plants were at high risk for exposure to asbestos-containing materials. Carborundum, located in Niagara Falls, New York, manufactured general purpose grinding wheels that were used to grind […]
In recent years, former employees of Carbide Graphite Group, Inc., have developed and died of mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other asbestos-related diseases. Laborers who were employed at its Packard Road plant located in Niagara Falls, New York, were routinely exposed to asbestos-containing materials. The Carbide Graphite Group, Inc., manufactured graphite electrode products, needle coke, and calcium […]
Allied Chemical owned numerous manufacturing facilities throughout the United States, and three Allied facilities were located in Western New York. The largest of the three plants, most recently known as Buffalo Color, was located in Buffalo, on Elk and Lee Streets. Beginning in 1879 and originally part of the National Aniline and Chemical Company, Buffalo […]
The BASF plant in Rensselaer was established in 1882 as the Hudson River Aniline Color Works. The building that was erected in 1882 was the sole building for the plant and served as its production, engineering and administrative facility until 1895, when a fire burned the building to the ground. The main plant building was […]
Founded in Binghamton, New York, in 1901, Ansco was a manufacturer of photographic products and film. Ansco was originally founded through the merger of E. Anthony & Company and Scovill Manufacturing. In 1928, Ansco merged with Agfa to form Agfa-Ansco. The new corporation was a division of General Aniline and Film (GAF) Corporation, which was […]
In 1917, the Alpha Portland Cement Company acquired the former Thomas Millen Company’s cement plant on Ogle Road in Jamesville, New York. In 1952, Alpha added a new concrete plant at the current site in order to increase production, and in 1959, new storage silos were constructed. The Alpha Portland Cement plant in Jamesville manufactured […]
Beginning in 1966, Agway Inc. and Felmont Oil Corporation jointly operated a fertilizer manufacturing facility known as Agway-Felmont. The fertilizer plant was located on Buffalo Street in Olean, New York. Felmont manufactured anhydrous ammonia, and Agway utilized the ammonia in order to make ammonium nitrate, urea and other nitrogen-based fertilizers. The Agway-Felmont plant in Olean […]
United States El Segundo, California Los Angeles, California Port Chicago, California Claymont, Delaware Brunswick, Georgia Idaho Falls, Idaho Chicago, Illinois Corning, Iowa East St. Louis, Illinois Metropolis, Illinois Ashland, Kentucky Baton Rouge, Louisiana Geismar, Louisiana Baltimore, Maryland Troy, Michigan Port Gibson, Mississippi Edgewater, New Jersey Elizabeth, New Jersey Jersey City, New Jersey Morristown, New Jersey […]
Asbestos-containing materials covered a vast majority of the pipe lines and associated equipment throughout Allied Chemical’s plants and production facilities. Throughout its three Western New York plants, the coke ovens, chemical manufacturing facilities, dye plants, and boiler houses all contained asbestos refractory or insulation materials. A refractory material is a non-metallic material capable of resisting […]
In December 1920, five chemical companies, including Barret Chemical Company, General Chemical Company, National Aniline and Chemical Company, Semet-Solvay Company, and Solvay Process Company merged to form the Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation. At the time, German chemical companies controlled the majority of the world’s chemical industry. Because of the economic devastation brought on by […]
In recent years, workers involved in the operation and maintenance of Allied Chemical facilities, a.k.a AlliedSignal, now Honeywell International Inc., have developed and died of mesothelioma, lung cancer and other asbestos-related diseases. Allied Chemical maintained three production facilities in Western New York: Semet-Solvay (Tonawanda Coke), Buffalo Color and Solvay Process Company. Asbestos insulation lined steam and chemical […]
BREAKING NEWS: Lipsitz, Ponterio & Comerford hosting a FREE Asbestos Seminar in Rochester!