What is Secondary Asbestos Exposure?
Secondary asbestos exposure is like inhaling secondhand tobacco smoke. You can breathe in or swallow asbestos fibers in the air without directly working with asbestos, like inhaling tobacco smoke when you’re not the one with the cigarette. When it comes to legal claims, how you were exposed isn’t as important as proving your exposure and what asbestos products caused it.
What is Asbestos?
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral fiber. These very light, strong, and durable fibers are also heat, fire, chemical, and electricity-resistant. These properties made asbestos a popular material for centuries, and it was used in about 3,000 products over the years.
Asbestos-containing products include:
- Building materials (roofing shingles, ceiling and floor tiles, siding, insulation)
- Friction products (brake linings, clutch pads)
- Fire-resistant fabrics
- Gaskets
- Glues and mastics
- Paints
- Household appliances
- Cigarette filters
Asbestos was plentiful and cheap during its peak use, which encouraged its use in a wide range of products.
Why is Asbestos Dangerous?
Asbestos is a serious health hazard. Inhaling or ingesting asbestos fibers may cause many health problems, including:
- Mesothelioma: A rare and fatal cancer of the linings of the lungs, chest cavity, heart, abdominal cavity and organs
- Asbestosis: A severe lung disease that can cause shortness of breath, coughing, and difficulty breathing, which slowly incapacitates its victims
- Lung cancer: Asbestos fibers lodged in the lungs over many years cause scarring, inflammation, and genetic changes that result in malignant cells and tumors. If the person smoked while they were exposed, they face a much higher risk of lung cancer than if they only inhaled asbestos fibers
There is no known safe level of asbestos exposure. Due to asbestos’ health risks, 55 other countries currently ban asbestos use. In the US, the federal Environmental Protection Agency recently announced regulations that will ban asbestos use over a five-year period.
What is Secondary Asbestos Exposure?
Secondary exposure isn’t due to the direct use of asbestos fibers or products that contain it (known as primary exposure). Situations where secondary exposure could happen include:
- There may be so much asbestos use at a facility like a power plant, shipyard, or steel mill that fibers float through the nearby area. Someone in the neighborhood or walking by the site could inhale or ingest fibers
- Often those working with asbestos or products containing it had fibers on their clothes. When they returned home after work, fibers could spread through their homes, where their spouses and children inhaled or ingested asbestos fibers
- Those living near an asbestos mine or a plant refining it could receive secondary exposure from fibers blowing in the wind
Some reasons why asbestos was used in so many products are that fibers are tiny, light, and durable. They can circulate in the air for a long time, settle, and then easily be stirred up again into the air. These characteristics made secondary exposure common and resulted in far more people being exposed.
Is Secondary Asbestos Exposure Dangerous?
According to the National Cancer Institute:
“There is some evidence that family members of workers heavily exposed to asbestos face an increased risk of developing mesothelioma…This risk is thought to result from exposure to asbestos fibers brought into the home on the shoes, clothing, skin, and hair of workers. To decrease these exposures, Federal law regulates workplace practices to limit the possibility of asbestos being brought home in this way. Some (current) employees may be required to shower and change their clothes before they leave work, store their street clothes in a separate area of the workplace, or wash their work clothes at home separately from other clothes…Cases of mesothelioma have also been seen in individuals without occupational asbestos exposure who live close to asbestos mines…”
You need not use asbestos to have your health and life threatened by it. Having asbestos fibers in your body increases your chances of mesothelioma and other cancers, no matter how it got there.
Can I Obtain Compensation for Harm Caused by Secondary Asbestos Exposure?
If you’re injured by asbestos, you may receive compensation for your medical bills, lost income, pain, and suffering, whether you worked with asbestos or products containing it directly or through secondary exposure.
As part of your case, you would need to produce evidence linking your exposure to a type or brand of asbestos product to show the correct defendants (those making or selling asbestos products) are named in your claim or lawsuit. Depending on your knowledge, that may or may not be difficult.
We would investigate how you were exposed and what or who (such as a family member) caused the exposure. After getting that information, we may be able to narrow down the places where the asbestos was used and determine which company’s products were used there.
If you have an asbestos-related disease, regardless of what you may or may not know about the original source of your exposure, we should discuss your case. Satterley & Kelley, PLLC is eager to talk to those injured by asbestos, no matter how it happened.
Call Us Today For A Free Initial Consultation
You may be entitled to compensation for your asbestos-related injuries if you:
- Lived near a site where asbestos was used or mined, or
- Lived with someone exposed to asbestos at work and
- Are diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related condition
Call our Louisville office toll-free at 855-385-9532 or complete our online contact form for a free initial consultation regarding your case.