Asbestos Mesothelioma – One Boilermaker's Story

January 19, 2009

New Port, RI: John worked as a boilermaker all his life, which involved working extensively with asbestos in the repair and fabrication of asbestos gaskets. When John became ill with the asbestos mesothelioma he had to have a lung removed. His case recently went to court and the jury awarded him a settlement of $4,390,000.



A Terrible Price to Pay for Corporate Negligence



John worked as an apprentice boilermaker at the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry dock Company from 1968 to 1971. He worked in the boiler rooms of victory ships and liberty ships, helping to refit them for active service in the Vietnam War. His job involved hammering gaskets on flanges, using chisels and scrapers to remove old gaskets, and then removing the asbestos residue with power grinders. All this makes for a lot of asbestos dust: dust that is made up of very fine particles that get deep into a man's lungs, his hair, and his clothes. In fact, the gaskets and packing materials that John worked with were tested during his case, and found to release asbestos fibers thousands of times greater than 'background levels'.



The company that manufactured the gaskets as well as the asbestos valve packing, and the asbestos rope and tape John and his colleagues used, was John Crane Inc. Despite the fact that the company knew the gaskets contained asbestos, they never issued any health warnings about the hazards of working around asbestos. In fact during the court case the company admitted to knowing precisely nothing about the dangers of asbestos until 1970.



But according to the experts, that argument doesn't hold water. In fact, the asbestos industry had 'extensive' knowledge of the health hazards associated with the minerals – specifically lung cancer and mesothelioma – long before John began working with Crane's products.



Medical experts who testified in the case, which included the former Assistant Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Lemen, as well as several pathologists, said that the medical community was well aware of asbestos-related disease, such as mesothelioma, from the early 1960s. Furthermore, they said that all exposure contributes to the risk and development of disease, and that the exposure is cumulative – meaning it builds over time. So it is not possible to say that exposure from one source of asbestos didn't or wouldn't have an effect.



Unfortunately, John's diagnosis was terminal.



Could You Be Exposed to Asbestos Today?

You bet. Construction, renovation, and the manufacturing of roofing materials and automobile parts such as brake shoes, are all areas in which asbestos is still used.

As well, many people were exposed to asbestos years ago and are just now being diagnosed with asbestos related disease. Asbestos mesothelioma has a latency period of as much as 30 years, and even that's not certain. It could be longer in some individuals, or shorter. Some estimates suggest that more than 27 million workers were exposed to the lethal minerals between 1940 and 1980.



Recent estimates from The Environmental Working Group Action Fund suggest that there are 10,000 asbestos-related deaths a year in the United States. That number includes 1 out of every 125 American men who die over the age of 50. Not surprisingly, asbestos mesothelioma lawsuits like John's are on the rise in the United States, because the companies that wilfully neglected to warn people of the dangers cannot hide any longer.