What You Should Know About Asbestos In The Workplace
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
Wrongful Death
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as many as 1.3 million people in the U.S. go to a workplace where they are exposed to a significant amount of asbestos. For decades it has been well-established that there is a link between asbestos and serious health problems like mesothelioma. However, several employees have much more questions than they do answers when it comes to asbestos. The Health Risks Of Asbestos In The Workplace
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous material. Due to its durability and resistance to heat and flame, asbestos has been utilized in dozens of industries and occupations for decades. However, long before its popularity in the industry peaked, asbestos quickly became linked to several health problems. Which makes it unsurprising that thousands of workers have developed a deadly asbestos-related disease called mesothelioma.
As we have mentioned, the dangers of asbestos have been clear for decades now. In fact, everyone breathes in trace amounts of asbestos each day, since it naturally occurs in nature. However, because asbestos fibers can be inhaled, even short-term exposure can have significant levels of asbestos on the job can lead to breathing issues, coughing, and shortness of breath. Asbestos has even been classified as a carcinogen or cancer-causing substance. The majority of the most serious health risks come from long-term exposure to asbestos on the job, especially from older individuals who have spent decades in the workplace before an advent of safety measures had occurred to help protect employees from asbestos exposure in the modern workplace.
The most common serious health problems related to asbestos exposure includes:
- Lung cancer
- Mesothelioma
- Asbestosis
- Colorectal and gastrointestinal cancers
- Abnormalities in the lining of the chest
Jobs That Are At Higher Risk Of Asbestos Exposure
After decades of the advent of health concerns about asbestos and the rise in deadly asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma, exposure to asbestos is much more common than we would like to admit. Here are just a few of the occupations and industries that traditionally have workers exposed to significant levels of asbestos:
- Construction, renovation, and demolition of residential and commercial buildings
- Paper mills
- Mining
- Shipbuilding
- Heating and cooling equipment repair
- Automotive repair
- Roofing
- Manufacture of products that contain asbestos
Workers’ Rights To Protection From Asbestos Exposure
If you work around or with significant amounts of asbestos as part of your job or you are worried about exposure to asbestos in the workplace, you should talk with your supervisor or union about any health risks and the steps that need to be taken to minimize those risks.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and several other workplace safety agencies are supposed to carefully regulate and monitor asbestos exposure on the job and they even set permissible exposure limits for different kinds of industries. Chances are, if your job does involve the exposure to significant levels of asbestos, your employer is legally required to take the steps necessary to keeping you and your coworkers safe from any health risks involved with asbestos.
Depending on the type of industry work you do and the specifics of your job, you may be legally entitled to receive and your employer may be legally obligated to provide the following kinds of on-the-job protections from asbestos exposure:
- Properly training employees who will be dealing with asbestos
- Well-ventilated workspaces
- Monitoring of employees for asbestos exposure levels
- Warning signs and instructions in areas where the asbestos-related work is performed
- Protective clothing in areas where asbestos-related work is performed
- Protective equipment
- Showers and other post-exposure precautions
- Medical examinations for workers who are exposed to high levels of asbestos
Lawsuits Regarding Asbestos In The Workplace
If your employment history involves working with or around a large amount of asbestos, here are a few things you may want to keep in mind.
Who is legally responsible? Typically, if an employee or former employee suffers from a health problem that is caused by asbestos in the workplace, a lawsuit may be filed against some or all of the following reasons:
- The company that manufactured the asbestos or any protective equipment that failed to work properly
- Owners of the premises where the work was performed
- Contractors and sub-contractors involved in the work being performed.
Why isn’t your employer on the list? This is because that would fall under workers’ compensation which is not a lawsuit, but an exclusive remedy to employers that fail to properly protect their workers.