Premises Description

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, headquartered in Lancaster, Ohio, operated one of the largest glass-container and pressed-glass tableware production networks in the United States. Anchor Hocking is publicly known for its Anchor tumblers, Fire-King ovenware, and food-and-beverage glass containers. It is a separate corporate entity from Owens-Illinois Glass, though both operated large Ohio glass-container works and used similar container-forming technology.

Plaintiffs alleged that Anchor Hocking’s Lancaster OH plants and satellite factories operated continuously running regenerative glass-melting tanks, forehearths, Individual Section (IS) forming machines, and gas-fired annealing lehrs, and that this equipment was allegedly built and repeatedly rebuilt with asbestos-containing insulating firebrick, high-temperature refractory brick, block insulation, millboard, castable refractory, expansion-joint packing, and high-temperature gaskets around the furnace crown, sidewalls, port necks, breast walls, regenerator checker chambers, forehearth channels, feeder gates, and lehr tunnel shells.

Plaintiffs further alleged that furnace cold-repairs, hot-patches, tank pulls, and lehr rebuilds performed on a recurring maintenance cycle exposed in-plant tradesmen to asbestos fibers, and that gasket replacement on IS-machine take-out mechanisms was a chronic maintenance activity that released asbestos fibers during removal.

Workers Exposed

Plaintiffs alleged that the following trades faced asbestos exposure at Anchor Hocking Glass premises:

  • Glass-tank bricklayers and refractory masons who tore out and re-laid asbestos-containing insulating firebrick and block during cold-repairs
  • Insulators who applied and removed asbestos block, millboard, and thermal cement on furnace exteriors, forehearth channels, and lehr shells
  • Maintenance mechanics who replaced asbestos gaskets and rope packing on IS-machine molds, blank molds, and take-out equipment
  • Millwrights working on forehearth feeders and lehr conveyor rebuilds
  • Glass workers and machine operators working downwind of hot-patch and rebuild activity

If You Worked at an Anchor Hocking Glass Plant

If you or a family member worked at Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation in Lancaster, Ohio, or at any Anchor Hocking satellite plant, and were exposed to furnace refractory, block insulation, or IS-machine gasket materials, you may have a claim.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956