A U.S. appeals court has dismissed the bankruptcy case filed by a Johnson & Johnson spinoff company. Around 40,000 cancer patients have filed suit, alleging the powder was contaminated with asbestos.

Their accounts contrast sharply with what chemical giants have said about worker safety at their facilities. At an Olin plant outside of McIntosh, Ala., workers recall decades of asbestos exposure.

While the U.S. considers finally banning the carcinogen, a group of men has come forward, saying they were exposed repeatedly while working at a chemical plant in New York.

The former mining town has watched its name transform from an asset in the late 1800s to a liability in recent decades. Residents voted to change the name to Val-des-Sources, or valley of the springs.

In Libby, Mont., an estimated 1 in 10 have an asbestos-related illness, after decades of pollution from a now-shuttered mine. With lungs already scarred, many fear contracting the coronavirus.