The town of Astern Lane, Wisconsin, with a population of 10,000, is a great place to live. This town has many interesting sights and features to offer its residents and visitors. Besides, the town had been introduced with tempting opportunities and countless jobs due to the establishment of a steel foundry, Bywater Steel Corporation, in the year 1991. But behind its prosperity lies a dark reality. Inflict
Astern Lane is probably the only small town in America that has the highest ratio of rare diseases among its inhabitants. The town and its people have suffered numerous early deaths, infertility, major acute and chronic syndromes including various forms of cancer, tumors, hysterectomy, cardiovascular diseases and brain damages. It’s interesting to know that the cause of all these painful damages is in fact the establishment of the steel foundry, generally perceived as the town’s savior.
It all began when the steel factory started dumping its waste products containing large quantity of asbestos materials into the nearby ponds. That water soon got contaminated and began to contaminate the nearby water reservoirs. Since those reservoirs were the only source of town’s water supply, the town people had no choice but to drink the water and eventually fell sick. On the other hand, the steel foundry was experiencing huge profitability and investments from other companies. The company and its officers were well aware of the consequences of these actions which were against human tolerance and decency. Slowly and gradually they were poisoning Astern Lane with harmful asbestos effluents because of which, people started developing diseases that the town had never experienced.
When this was brought to notice of the town’s administration, they immediately confronted the steel company. To ease the tension that was brewing in the town, Bywater assured Astern Lane that a water purifying plant was to be established. Bywater did eventually set up such a plant, to purify the water contaminated by the factory waste. Additionally, the company agreed to bear all the medical expenses of its workers and their family members. The town immediately approved Bywater’s plan and continued to bear the damages made by the company’s progression. “We neglected the harmful possibilities of asbestos exposure”, said Anderson Wilson, a resident of Astern Lane. “We were bended by the alluring deal Bywater put in front of us ignoring the great damages it carried” he continued.
A few months later, after the water purifying plant established, a rare case of cancer broke out in the town affecting many. 39 year old Neville*, a worker of Bywater Corporation, developed a rare form of mesothelioma. At first, the town’s local hospital diagnosed Neville with tuberculosis and recommended him to a surgeon at Wisconsin General Hospital. Upon consultation with a WGH surgeon, Neville was diagnosed with Pleural mesothelioma and given only few months to live. Numerous other people of the town endured similar and other kinds of painful and life-impairing diseases.
This led to a comprehensive investigation done by the town’s administration who hired geologists and doctors on voluntarily basis to help them sort out the root causes of all these problems. After a month, the administration received the investigation report which clearly stated that the steel foundry was the only cause of the problem and the water purifying plant was not doing any good to the people. Instead, the water purifying plant itself was an asbestos enriched environment. Surprised and shocked by the deceit of Bywater, the town and its residents filed a civil suit against Bywater Steel Corporation for the damages done to their neighborhood and its people.
The case went into trial on July 2000 in which the jury and the judge unanimously favored the town. As for Bywater Steel Corporation, the judge gave the verdict against the company and ordered it to give 1 million dollars to every citizen of Astern Lane; additionally retaining the steel foundry by making it asbestos free and environmental friendly. The case of Astern Lane against Bywater Steel Corporation has been one of the biggest law suits in the country.
Though the steel foundry has been re-established as an environmental friendly work place, the long-term damage has been done to the town’s people. The inhabitants of Astern Lane must have been paid the hefty amount of money towards their sufferings, but their whole generations will be haunted by the damaging effects of asbestos exposure.
Note: *Names have been changed to retain anonymity. |
