El Paso’s industrial legacy is dominated by the ASARCO smelter, which operated for over a century on the Rio Grande — a site whose refractory, insulation, and process systems reportedly exposed generations of workers to asbestos alongside the smelter’s other hazards.
Every Texas asbestos case follows the same path: it is filed in the county of proper venue, transferred to the statewide Texas Asbestos MDL pretrial court (the 281st District Court in Harris County) for pretrial proceedings, and then remanded to the county for trial. Texas allows two years from a mesothelioma or asbestos-cancer diagnosis to file (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003).