Asbestos: Cause of Death, Doing the Laundry...

April 20, 2008

Everett, WA Larry Rochon is a man who knows all too well the dangers of asbestos, after working with floating asbestos fibers as constant companion at the Scott Paper Company. He also knows the dangers of that same asbestos exposure when transferred to his family.



While cases of asbestosis and mesothelioma from long-term asbestos exposure have long been documented, it's rare that you hear of family members succumbing to the asbestos exposure of the family breadwinner. But it can happen and it does, when a worker unknowingly transports asbestos fibers home on his clothes, or to car seats in the minivan.



It also behooves industry, which continues to legally utilize asbestos for the manufacture of automotive brake parts, for example, to ensure proper practices, and procedures are both implemented and enforced. Such practices might include breathing apparatus, and protective clothing, including headgear, gloves, and footwear that would be removed and not worn home. Ideally, workers would have the capacity to shower prior to getting back into their street clothes.



So long as asbestos remains a regulated, but approved substance in the United States, such precautions for workers exposed to asbestos for any reason, including its removal from old buildings, would help in preventing the spread of asbestos to innocent parties.



In Rochon's case, his routine would include dumping his work clothes in with the family laundry. There the hamper would sit until his wife Adeline, to whom he had been married since 1956, would pull those clothes out of the hamper and give them a good shake before tossing them into the machine.



Little did anyone know at the time that in so doing, Adeline was imposing onto herself a death sentence. Rochon, in wearing his work clothes home, was unwittingly transporting asbestos dust and fibers home with him. No one at work warned him about such a practice. And Adeline, in handling and shaking the clothes routinely for all those years, was unknowingly exposing herself to the toxic asbestos fibres that would eventually be suspected in the mesothelioma that claimed her life in 2006, just 39 days shy of her 50th wedding anniversary.



Rochon was exposed at work. But his wife was exposed at home.



Following her diagnosis of mesothelioma in 2004, the couple filed a personal injury lawsuit against Kimberly-Clark, which had since purchased Scott Paper. The lawsuit was filed in March, 2005.



A Snohomish County Superior Court judge, who ruled that the employer wasn't responsible for protecting family members, initially dismissed the case. However, Rochon's attorney appealed the decision. Last August the appeals court ruled, in a precedent-setting decision, that an employer has a duty to protect the employee and the employee's family from work-related hazards.



It has been reported that Kimberly-Clark did not register an appeal with the Washington State Superior Court by the September 12th, 2007 deadline, thus the trial is expected to proceed sometime this year.



While researchers are poring over a new study that may shed new light on the mystery if how asbestos exposure causes life-threatening lung damage and cancer, it likely would not have helped Adeline Rochon, who died of mesothelioma, a rare but deadly disease of the lining surrounding vital organs, which is almost always caused by asbestos contamination.



The study, published April 10th in the online edition of 'Science' suggests that the arthritis drug Anakinra, currently being investigated as a possible treatment for gout, could also be used to prevent asbestos-triggered lung damage.



However the investigation remains in the early stages, and there is nothing to suggest that the findings represent a similar prevention for mesothelioma.



At the end of the day, any industry still utilizing asbestos in the manufacturing process, or exposing their workers to asbestos fibers in any industrial, or workplace environment, needs to be aware of the dangers of long-term asbestos exposure not only to workers, but also to their families—and take significant steps to mitigate that risk.



There have been too many lives lost, and too many families devastated needlessly, to consider anything else.



In the meantime, if you have reason to believe that you have, or are now suffering from needless workplace exposure, bear in mind that it is your employer's responsibility to provide a safe workplace environment. If this is, has or was not ever the case, then you need to consult an asbestos attorney. You may be faced with some hefty health care bills, and your family may ultimately have to learn to get along without you. If your employer had a hand in determining such a sequence of events, you have a right to pursue compensation.



Rochon told a reporter with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in October that he wasn't at all aware, and certainly did not expect the asbestos fibers which came home on his clothing, could claim the life of someone he loved.



"I knew nothing about (the risk) at the time," he said in comments published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Every day is tough. I haven't adjusted. If it weren't for my kids, I don't know what I'd do..."