Florida Attorney

Florida has developed a number of industries that utilize asbestos products in their processing operations.For years one of the major sources of vermiculite has been a mine in Libby, Montana that is now owned by W.R. Grace. The mineral from this mine has been found to contain substantial amounts of asbestos; over 100,000 tons of it was shipped to Tampa. The mineral is heated to a very high temperature in order to use it for manufacturing: vermiculite from Libby released asbestos fibers in plants across the country for decades.

Tampa’s vermiculite processing plant is not the only source of asbestos exposure in the state. There are a number of chemical plants and power plants that certainly contained asbestos insulation at one time and perhaps still do. There are military installations and shipyards in Florida, as well as NASA’s facility for launching rockets for satellites and the manned spaceflight program. Florida has an extensive collection of power plants that provide electricity to the state and to the multistate grid in the area. The state has a wide assortment of potential asbestos contamination sites: as a result, Florida has one of the highest death rates from mesothelioma in the United States.