Cancer lawsuit mesothelioma settlement

PITTSBURGH-- The window a former Bethlehem Steel Corp. employee has reached an out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit she tiled alleging that her husband died of lung cancer after working with asbestos-based materials.

Bethlehem Steel was not a defendant in the suit and was not accused of being at fault.

Richard Zambor died in 1998 of mesothelioma, a form of cancer reportedly brought on by exposure to asbestos. His widow, Joan, last week reached a settlement with eight manufacturers of the material, but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The defendants in the case were Combustion Engineering, Congoleum, Flintkote, A.P. Green Inc., Harbison-Walker Refractories Co., North American Refractories Co. Owens Illinois Glass and H.H. Robertson. According to the suit, the companies manufactured asbestos-based materials used at Bethlehem Steel but hid the dangers of the products.

A jury had been chosen in Northampton County (Pa) and a judge had been assigned to hear the lawsuit when the settlement was reached. It is the first of up to 3,000 lawsuits filed on behalf of former Bethlehem Steel employees who say they were exposed to hazardous levels of asbestos at the plant.