Asbestos Mesothelioma Claims Another Wife

December 10, 2010

Dorchester, United Kingdom Mrs. Tuck's only crime was that she loved her husband and hugged him when he came home from work. The one simple act, together with the equally mundane task of doing his laundry, killed her. That, and the asbestos that husband Paul brought home with him on his clothes. The former home care manager from the United Kingdom contracted asbestos mesothelioma and died earlier this year.



Mesothelioma is an incurable disease almost exclusively linked to asbestos. Caused by the ingestion of airborne asbestos fibers, mesothelioma has a latency that can extend in excess of 30 years. In other words, an individual can live without symptoms for decades following exposure before symptoms begin to appear. Once diagnosed, death usually follows within 12 months.



A coroner's inquest was called to establish the events leading up to Audrey Linda Tuck's death, the Bournemouth Echo reported on December 4. Paul Tuck was a farm worker who had once toiled on a renovation project to transform a poultry house into a pig farm, according to details brought forward at the inquest.



Coroner Michael Johnson indicated that Audrey Tuck, before she died, recalled hugging her husband when he came home from work still wearing his dust-laden clothes. She also used to shake them out prior to doing the laundry.



Asbestos, as has been the sad case for many others besides the Tuck family, has affected not just the individual working within close proximity to asbestos, but also close family members and those who come into contact with asbestos fibers in a secondary capacity.



Prior asbestos claims mirror the facts related to the Tuck case in England: husband who works with, or in close proximity to asbestos, is not made aware of the dangers by his employer. Asbestos fibers are brought into the home, and family members are exposed. Even asbestos fibers in a family vehicle, driven by an individual in asbestos-laden work clothes, can foster exposure. Prior asbestos claims have made this point.



Johnston, the coroner, ruled Tuck's death as due to "environmental exposure" to asbestos, and offered sympathies to the Tuck family. It is not known if Paul Tuck was seeking asbestos compensation on behalf of himself, his children and his late wife amidst her fatal asbestosis injury.



Asbestos Lawsuits have increased in recent years due to the latency period for mesothelioma. Asbestos was finally identified as a known carcinogen decades ago, and most companies still having to work with asbestos—as well as renovators who are forced to deal with the material in old buildings—today take precautions. However, this was not the case 30 or 40 years ago when many workers were unwittingly exposed.



Thirty years on, many asbestos cancer patients and their families are increasingly seeking the services of an asbestosis lawyer after the ticking time bomb that is asbestos mesothelioma, suddenly erupts…