In the United Kingdom and the United States, recent news articles discussed a young mesothelioma patient and asbestos lawsuits related to abatement failure and a negligent employer.
Doctors diagnosed Helen Bone, a 42 year old from Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, with mesothelioma 3 years ago. Her career was in nursing. Now Ms. Bone campaigns to raise awareness about asbestos and mesothelioma. She also wants rules governing renovation and repair work in buildings that would reduce asbestos exposures.
Similarly, a plaintiff in West Virginia filed a lawsuit in July. She claims an asbestos abatement project at West Virginia University’s Fairmont Medical center exposed her to asbestos. The plaintiff was a student there from 1998 to 2004. She is currently battling lung cancer.
And in late July, a jury in Illinois awarded $24 million to the family of a janitor. The lawsuit alleged that Avon Products knowingly and negligently exposed the janitor to asbestos by requiring him to handle asbestos-tainted talc without warning, training, or personal protection. The jury found the lawsuit convincing.
Ms. Bone, the nurse from the United Kingdom, warns that mesothelioma should no longer be thought of as a disease that just affects older men who worked in construction or mining. While asbestos-related diseases most commonly afflict workers in related fields – abatement, construction, mining – workers in offices, hospitals, and schools suffer asbestos-related illnesses, too.
Asbestos-related diseases are devastating to anyone receiving that diagnosis and are devastating to their family and friends.
These diseases also present a huge liability to businesses that deal with asbestos, like abatement, or businesses and institutions with buildings that contain the material. The lawsuits mentioned above likely resulted from improper containment during abatement or from asbestos that was not properly marked and maintained.
It is important to keep your asbestos training current to protect yourself, your loved ones, everyone. To sign up for a course, visit metaenvironmental.net or call 800-444-6382.
Click here to read the BBC article about Helen Bone
Click here for more information on the West Virginia and Illinois lawsuits