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 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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 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. […]
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 […]
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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, […]