Navy Supplier Creates Trust Fund For Victims of Mesothelioma, Other Asbestos Disease

Leslie Controls, a manufacturer that supplied asbestos-containing gaskets and valves to the U.S. Navy from the 1940s until the 1980s, has created a fund to compensate Navy veterans who were harmed by asbestos disease. Breathing asbestos is associated with serious respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung.

Leslie Control, Inc., a unit of CIRCOR International, created the trust in 2011 as part of a pre-negotiated reorganization overseen by U.S. Bankruptcy Court. A federal bankruptcy judge for the District of Delaware recently affirmed the plan of reorganization and funding of the asbestos trust to resolve asbestos claims. Claims may be filed with the trust starting in March 2012.

Based in Tampa, Fla., Leslie Controls manufactured valves and steam control equipment that were used in military and merchant ships. Asbestos was used as insulation around steam pipes and valves and led to the exposure of hundreds of thousands of Navy veterans to the cancer-causing mineral fibers over the decades.

The symptoms of mesothelioma typically take 20 years to 40 years to appear. Navy veterans and merchant mariners exposed to asbestos in the 1960s or 1970s may only recently have begun experiencing symptoms of asbestos disease or received a diagnosis of mesothelioma. An aggressive cancer, Mesothelioma often goes undetected until it has reached an advanced stage

With the help of an experienced mesothelioma attorney, veterans may make a legal claim for compensation for against a asbestos manufacturer or supplier of asbestos-containing parts.

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