BY MONONA ROSSOL
T
alc is a natural mineral that
has been mined and used for
centuries as a cosmetic and
personal hygiene product. It is also a
common clay and glaze ingredient.
Unfortunately, This mineral is one
that could be contaminated with
asbestos. The industrial and ceramic
talcs mined in upstate New York
by RT Vanderbilt are those most
associated with this hazard.
The Mines are Closed
We probably do not have to worry
much about exposure to New York
talc. RT Vanderbilt Company closed
these mines in 2009. Today, I only
find their products such as NYTAL
100 or Ceramitalc when there are
old supplies in storage room or bins
in potteries or schools.
The story you have heard about the
talc probably stops there. However,
because the latency period for
developing mesothelioma is roughy
20 to 40 years, this problem is not
going away anytime soon. It is
only fair that you know that there
Seven More Cases
The two jury verdicts were delivered
in 2006 and 2007 and the second was
upheld on appeal in 2009. Since that
time, I know of no other lawsuit in
which Vanderbilt has been before a
jury. But I have now been retained in
seven more lawsuits — ones I can’t
tell you about. I have been advised
that when cases like these settle,
there are confidentiality agreements
involved. But without these stories,
how can I convince ceramic artists
and teachers that they are at
risk? How can I alert those who
still have old stocks of this talc in
their studios?
I consulted my lawyer and lawyers
for some of the plaintiffs in the
mesothelioma lawsuits about what
I am allowed to say. The consensus
is that I can divulge how many cases
I’ve been retained in and some basic
information about the activity that
exposed the plaintiffs to the dust.
I can say that these people include
an artist, ceramics teachers at levels
from children’s classes to college,
and people who did crafting or
teaching at home. In these cases,
RT Vanderbilt is or was (some have
settled) one of the defendants.
Ten Cases in Total
These seven cases plus the two
jury trials makes nine. But there is
another that I can write about.
In 1980, I interviewed my very first
mesothelioma victim. She was
a doctor’s wife who had a small
ceramic doll business in Port Ewan,
New York. She used talc-containing
slips and died of mesothelioma at
age 54 in August of 1981. I wrote a
short obituary for her in a newsletter
called Art Hazards News. This means
there are ten cases of mesothelioma
in people exposed to RT Vanderbilt
talc of which I am personally aware.
Other Talcs
Is upstate New York talc the only
one containing asbestos? Clearly it
is not. Research shows that there are
other talc deposits in which asbestos
is a contaminant, and one of these
studies was on cosmetic talcs:
Asbestos in commercial cosmetic
talcum powder as a cause of
mesothelioma in women, Ronald
E. Gordon;* Sean Fitzgerald;* James
Millette,* International Journal of
Occupational and Environmental
Health, Volume 20, Issue 4 (October
2014), pp. 318-332
Cosmetic talcum powder is known
to cause lung fibrosis and has
been suggested as a causative
factor in development of ovarian
carcinomas, gynecological tumors
and mesothelioma. This study was
designed to fill in the gaps in the data
connecting talc to mesothelioma.
But there are two important issues
in the study for ceramicists.
1. The identification of the asbestos
in talc is shown to require expensive
and difficult tests.** I don’t know if
these tests have been done on the
continued on next page
CLAYTIMES·COM n 20TH ANNIVERSARY • AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
The New York mines were closed
shortly after juries in two separate
lawsuits decided that deaths
from the asbestos-related disease,
mesothelioma,
resulted
from
exposure to the talc. The Plaintiffs
in the first trial were the family of a
man who was a potter at the time he
was exposed to the talc (I was one
of the expert witnesses in this suit).
The other was a woman tile-maker.
[See the July/August 2008 issue of
Clay Times for a complete description
of these trials.]
are several more such cases of
mesothelioma.
Studio I Health & Safety
Should We Be Using Talc-Free Clay?
29