Boston Jury Blames Talc Supplier for Utah Man's Mesothelioma After 2014 Pleurodesis, $23.6 Million Stood

Bryce Zundel, a Utah man, was treated in 2014 for a collapsed lung. To keep fluid and air from returning, doctors performed a talc pleurodesis, a procedure in which sterile talc powder is placed around the lung so the lung and chest wall stick together. The powder used on his left lung was made with Elite Talc 2000, a product supplied by Cimbar Performance Minerals, the trade name of United Minerals and Properties, a Georgia company.

In 2021, seven years after the procedure, Zundel was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining around the lung that is linked to asbestos exposure. He and his wife, Diane, sued in Massachusetts. Court filings described his case as the first to reach a jury on the claim that a talc pleurodesis caused mesothelioma. Houston-based The Lanier Law Firm and the firm Meirowitz & Wasserberg represented the Zundels at trial.

The plaintiffs argued that the talc Cimbar imported and sold for pharmaceutical and cosmetic use was contaminated with asbestos. Testing of a sample of the product found tremolite and chrysotile asbestos. They also argued that Cimbar knew asbestos was a carcinogen before it began importing the talc and still described the product as safe.

The case went to trial in Boston, and the jury returned its verdict on Sept. 13, 2024. It found that Cimbar misrepresented the safety of Elite Talc 2000, that Cimbar was negligent, that the company breached the implied warranty of merchantability, and that the talc was defectively designed. The jury also found that Cimbar's negligence was a substantial contributing factor in causing Zundel's mesothelioma.

The total award was $39,081,142. Zundel received $3 million for past pain and suffering and $21.5 million for future pain and suffering. Diane Zundel received $1.5 million for past and $10.75 million for future loss of consortium. The rest covered $925,000 in past medical expenses, $925,000 in future medical expenses and $481,142 in other economic damages.

The trial judge upheld the liability findings but ruled that the future pain and suffering award was greatly disproportionate and reduced it to $6 million. That brought the judgment to about $23.6 million. Cimbar appealed, and the Massachusetts Appeals Court heard oral argument on Sept. 9, 2026, on whether the evidence supported causation for a cancer that appeared seven years after the procedure and on the damages.