Cancer News, Treatment and Research

Bloomington, Illinois wants to let the public know about the seriousness of the impact asbestos had on its townspeople, so it’s putting together an exhibit on the subject that will appear at the local history museum. The display will largely focus on UNARCO, the Union Asbestos and Rubber Company. According to an article in The Pantagraph, a new exhibit at the McLean County Museum of History will detail UNARCO’s history in Bloomington, and the long-reaching effects of asbestos. Records show that a majority of the products UNARCO manufactured contained asbestos. Many Bloomington area individuals were employed at the company’s plant and are suffering from asbestos diseases. The name of the display, scheduled to open by 2015, will be entitled: A Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County. It will include input from Mike Matejka, director of government affairs for Great Plains Laborers District Council, who is the curator of the exhibit, as well as others who were directly impacted by asbestos exposure. One such individual is Ron Thacker, age 77, who currently suffers from asbestosis . He lost his brother Leslie in 1981 at the age of 49 and his dad in 1977 at the age of 71. Both had an advanced form of the disease. It’s a fact that angers Thacker and he loathes UNARCO’s disregard for workers. “I used to grind this stuff with a grinder,” he said, explaining that the company knew asbestos was deadly but never revealed that fact to workers. “Every year we had to go in for a chest X-ray,” he said. “I thought they had our good in mind.” But, Thacker adds, if they saw the beginnings of an asbestos-related disease on the x-ray, UNARCO would find some reason to let that particular worker go. It’s a fact that angers him to this day, but Thacker hopes the exhibit will help others in the Bloomington area and beyond to understand his pain. Part of the display will be a memorial that will honor those who died of mesothelioma and other related diseases due to their employment at UNARCO. Many of these same individuals or their loved ones have filed lawsuits against UNARCO for negligent exposure and, the article states, the courts have largely sided with the employees. “It’s a catastrophe that didn’t happen just one day; there have been multiple slow deaths over decades of intensive suffering,” said Matejka. “This exhibit is important to remind ourselves … to honor the workers and families; to look at the larger social questions … to ask what’s still going on out there now with the emerging technology…”