The Silent Killer: Dangers of Asbestos in the Workplace Panel Discussion
Schedule
Tue Apr 29 2025 at 06:30 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
200 N Main St, Bloomington, IL, United States, Illinois 61701 | Bloomington, IL
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April 28 is Workers’ Memorial Day. Join us in gathering to remember those who have fallen on the job due to accidents and occupational exposure, plus call for safety adherence.This year, Workers’ Memorial Day will be marked with a panel discussion at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29, at the McLean County Museum of History. The observance is tied to the Museum’s newest temporary exhibit, A Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County, sponsored by LiUNA! Midwest Region Laborers’ International Union of North America. This free public program will be held in-person in the Museum's second floor courtroom and live-streamed via youtube.com/mchistorymuseum.
In the early 20th century, European medical researchers began labeling asbestos as a carcinogen. In the mid-1930s, the U.S. asbestos industry funded medical studies that confirmed those links. The industry then claimed those studies were proprietary, withholding the information from the public and industry workers.
In Bloomington, the United Asbestos and Rubber Company (UNARCO) opened a plant in 1951. For the next 20 years, plant workers were continually exposed to asbestos fibers and the premature death tolls grew. The company closely monitored workers’ health, “easing out” those who were developing diseases. This was the “deadly deception” where UNARCO well knew the danger that workers were in. By the early 1970s, asbestos’ health risks became public knowledge, though too late for those impacted. Lawsuits multiplied as workers and families sought restitution and assistance with mounting medical bills.
The panel discussion will focus on the impact the asbestos industry had on our community, and the dangers people continue to face when exposed to asbestos.
Topics for discussion will include: the impact asbestos exposure had on the family of one worker at the UNARCO manufacturing plant (led by Cheryl Will, whose father, Willard Tipsord, worked at UNARCO and ultimately died of mesothelioma in 1989); litigation to settle worker’s occupational disease claims (led by Jim Walker, retired Twin Cities attorney who represented local asbestos workers in the 1970s and 1980s), how workers today are trained to mitigate asbestos (led by George Martinez, Laborers International Union Training and Education fund asbestos remediation instructor), and what conditions were like for workers at the UNARCO plant (led by Laborers International Union Local 362 retiree Larry Mertes who worked the final year that asbestos was produced at UNARCO). Dr. Ericka Wills, assistant professor in the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin- Madison and a labor educator and activist, will close the discussion with remarks and reflections. The discussion will be moderated by Charlie Schlenker, senior reporter at WGLT. Ericka Wills, assistant professor at the School for Workers, University of Wisconsin, Madison and labor activist, will provide closing remarks about the discussion and connect the exhibit to present day issues.
Questions? Please contact the Museum’s Education Department at [email protected] or 309-827-0428.
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Where is it happening?
200 N Main St, Bloomington, IL, United States, Illinois 61701Event Location & Nearby Stays:
