A Different Disease, a Different Fiber

We briefed and argued a 2017 case in Maryland federal court that produced a decision on causation in asbestos cases. In Rockman v. Union Carbide Corp., the plaintiff claimed that bystander exposure to joint compound containing chrysotile asbestos caused his peritoneal mesothelioma. The court excluded the plaintiff’s expert testimony and granted summary judgment for our client, Georgia-Pacific.

The court rejected a theory plaintiffs in asbestos cases often advance: that every exposure to asbestos, no matter how minimal, contributes to causing disease. Instead, the court required reliable studies showing that exposures at the level the plaintiff experienced increase the incidence of the disease he claimed.

The court also required the scientific evidence to match the exposure and the disease alleged. Studies of high-level amphibole exposure and pleural mesothelioma did not establish that the low-level chrysotile exposure claimed there caused peritoneal mesothelioma.