Hazards of Asbestos Stretching beyond Traditional Victims

We all know the stories about miners, shipyard workers, pipe fitters, insulators and brake lining workers being exposed to the hazards of asbestos. But now risks in other occupations—and among women are also coming to light.

Christine Oliver and her co-workers at the Harvard Medical School in Boston found a strong link between pleural plaques and reduced lung function in 121 school custodians. Of the 57 men who had no known exposure to the hazard of asbestos outside the schools, 12 showed pleural plaques and 10 showed at least a 20 percent reduction in lung function.

Are you an untraditional victim of the hazards of asbestos too? Contact Seeger Weiss for free case evaluation today.

Women have not been supported

Despite an increasing body of medical evidence, the courts and the Dept. of Social Security are extremely reluctant to recognize that women can be and are the victims of the asbestos cancer. This combination of ignorance and prejudice in the medical, social and legal professions means that a growing number of women who suffered a work hazard are failing to obtain the compensation they so clearly deserve for their pain and suffering.

Although 90 per cent of mesotheliomas are believed to be caused by the asbestos exposure, a study by Clydeside Action on Asbestos has shown that 75 per cent of their female members are unsuccessful in their applications for Industrial Injury Benefits for work hazard.

All buildings deteriorate and asbestos exposure can become airborne and dangerous. Clydeside Action on Asbestos says they have over 20 female members who have all contracted ill health due to asbestos exposure working as cleaners, nurses and teachers in public buildings.

The main obstacle is the assumption that women do not work in occupations where hazards of asbestos are likely to occur. Although use of asbestos is now largely banned in this country, it is still used in more than 1,000 products, and it remains in public building built before the early 1970s causing continuing hazards of asbestos.

Stories of Women who have Suffered

Jeanette Sawyers, a schoolteacher died from mesothelioma, which had been caused by asbestos exposure in her school. Enduring years of dealing with it with no medication, treatment or even a diagnosis, simply because she was a woman suffering from what has traditionally been considered as a man's disease.

Julia Campbell worked as a school cleaner for more than 30 years. As a non-smoker, she never had any health problems until recently when she began to experience shortness of breath and pains in her chest. She learned she was suffering from a fibrosis of the lung tissue; exactly was occurs as a result of asbestos exposure. She had been exposed to asbestos during the course of her employment. Fifteen years earlier, she had to clean up in a science lab that had a damaged ceiling. Every day for six months she would wipe from the tables with asbestos dust that have fallen from the insulating material above. She was denied a work hazard claim for benefit dismissing her work history as not being enough to cause asbestosis.

Moira Mooney had a six-year battle proving that her mother's death was caused by an exposure to asbestos. Moira's mother worked as a cleaner in a bus garage. Moira remembers that her mother was always “as strong as an ox until a few years before her death, when she went to her doctor complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains. Mary was not asked about her occupation, nor even given an X-ray, but sent home with a diagnosis of asthma.

The first time mesothelioma was mentioned was the death certificate, and her daughter was not told that this was a work hazard, and that she should be entitled to compensation. With the help of Clydeside Action on Asbestos, Moira finally managed to prove that her mother had worked close to men who had repaired the brake linings in the bus garage and had swept up asbestos dust which was a work hazard.

Unfortunately, her uncle George also died of mesothelioma, but their treatment was so different. According to Moony, my uncle was asked almost immediately whether or not he worked around hazards of asbestos, and he was diagnosed properly while he was alive. He also got all the benefits which he was entitled to from the DSS. My mother was totally ignored by the medical and social services for her work hazard.