Construction Workers and Mesothelioma

If you're one of the construction workers and mesothelioma has impacted your life, you may be eligible for compensation. Contact our office today to learn if you are and get started right away. You can also learn more about the mesothelioma claims process here.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the construction industry in 2020 employed approximately 7 million people. Many construction industry workers will be exposed to asbestos if they do not take proper precautions during the remodeling, renovation, expansion, or demolition of structures built before the 1980s. However, countless construction workers involved in the original building of those pre-1980s structures did sustain asbestos exposure.

The asbestos exposure was caused by the asbestos-ridden materials that the workers would handle daily. From 1930 to 1980, asbestos was everywhere, in roof tiles, wall insulation, the floor, and the walls, and the workers didn’t even know about the health risks. Even if they did, there was no way to avoid the sheer quantity of asbestos on the job site.

Even when building these pre-1980s structures, countless construction workers were exposed to asbestos every time they stepped up to work. The real danger of asbestos exposure is the resulting health problems it can cause. The construction workers exposed to asbestos developed mesothelioma, asbestos lung cancer, asbestosis, and other asbestos-related illnesses that they carried with them for the rest of their lives.

The good news about this is that in the present, we stand a better chance of both fighting the health problems caused by asbestos exposure and also raising awareness about asbestos exposure. Construction Workers and Mesothelioma can go hand in hand, know your rights and contact us today.

Who Qualifies As A Construction Worker?

There are two definitions of a construction worker. The most commonly used definition is "that of a person who serves in the role of laborer assisting tradespeople at construction sites." Construction workers and mesothelioma are a common mix; make sure you know how your company protects you.

A construction site laborer is someone who is there to help out. He does jobs like cleaning up after the laborers, sets up scaffolding and forms for concrete pouring, makes sure unneeded foot and vehicle traffic stays out of the construction site, makes sure the heavy equipment goes where it is needed to go, assists in demolition by swinging hammers and breaking up tiles, and also removes all the debris from demolitions so the workers can do their job of building the structure.

In general, a construction site laborer is there to help out, perform tasks to assist the tradespeople who are doing construction, and help to minimize any time not spent on construction. The second definition of a construction worker is anyone who performs any job at a construction site. This includes tradespeople, such as heavy equipment operators, framers, drywallers, welders, painters, electricians, and plumbers.

Both definitions are equally valid because they share in common that people working at the site of residential, commercial, industrial, or infrastructure construction face asbestos exposure risks. Asbestos was used in everything and in every type of building, so no matter where they are working, if the building is old enough, it will expose them to asbestos. Other trades also experienced asbestos exposure that developed into mesothelioma. These trades include:

How Common Is Asbestos?

More than 3,500 products for use in constructing homes, offices, schools, factories, bridges, and other structures were made with asbestos. And not only were they made with asbestos, but they also were heavily marketed as superior products. That's why construction workers and mesothelioma can go hand in hand. Our construction workers often work with materials that cause mesothelioma. Here are some of the types of asbestos products construction workers could—and may still—encounter at job sites:

Plaster
Felt
HVAC systems
Cables
Wires
Ceiling tiles
Ceiling stucco
Insulation
Flooring
Furnaces
Generators
Garage door opener motors
Ducts
Wall panels
Drywall
Pipe coatings
Shingles
Siding
Vinyl wallpaper

It’s one of these materials we want to have a much closer look at in the following paragraphs, something so common that nearly every construction worker will have to interact with it at some point.

Construction Workers and Mesothelioma: Asbestos Exposure From Drywall

Asbestos was used in drywall systems throughout most of the 20th century. The carcinogenic mineral was added to drywall boards, to the tape applied over the joints between adjoining boards, to the compound applied over the tape, and even to the coatings brushed over the boards.

Asbestos was added to these materials to make them stronger and lighter in weight. Asbestos also was added to make them moisture-resistant (which was important if used in bathrooms, laundry rooms, and boiler rooms). Asbestos was also added to drywall systems so rooms could be warmed with less furnace heat and cooled with less air-conditioning.

The other benefit of adding asbestos was it made drywall systems fire-resistant, if not fireproof (depending on how much asbestos was added). While this was fine when people were ignorant of the health problems asbestos caused, now these types of drywalls are very dangerous. Asbestos won’t cause a massive health risk if you do not disturb it. It’s an airborne disease and at its most dangerous whenever the particles are in the air. However, whenever drywall gets handled during construction, the asbestos goes airborne. When the drywall is stacked and prepared for installation, the materials will chip off, and the asbestos particles will get into the air.

How Can Asbestos Disturbance Happen?

Disturbance can also happen when a drywall board is drilled, cut, or hammered into. And whenever a construction worker sands the joint compounds and board coatings, that is the greatest cause of the disturbance. Disturbed asbestos is asbestos that can become airborne. Once it enters the air of an enclosed space, it floats for days. Anyone who passes through that enclosed space without a respirator is likely to inhale some floating asbestos particles, which then find their way into the person’s lungs, where they remain trapped.

After 10 or more years of being locked inside the lungs, those asbestos particles can cause healthy cells to begin mutating and eventually produce mesothelioma, for example. Notably, not all drywall systems contained asbestos. In the 1970s, some companies (such as U.S. Gypsum) sold drywall systems expressly labeled as asbestos-free. This sort of marketing appears to represent a tacit acknowledgment of the unhealthfulness of asbestos-containing products. However, it wasn’t enough to stop the widespread use of asbestos in drywall.

Construction Workers And Asbestos Exposure From Roofs

In the early 1900s, building homes, offices, and even institutional buildings such as schools with roofs topped by decorative clay or slate shingles became fashionable. These shingles not only looked attractive but also helped protect structures from catching fire (as might happen were embers from a nearby fire fall on a roof covered in wooden shingles). Clay and slate shingles also provided insulation against the beating rays of the sun, which helped keep rooms cool and comfortable during hot-weather months.

However, clay and slate shingles were heavy and expensive. So, when comparatively lightweight and lower-cost shingles fashioned from composited hydraulic cement and asbestos hit the market around the 1920s, they quickly overtook clay and slate as America's number one roofing choice. It also helped that asbestos shingles came in many more colors than those available in clay or slate.

Asbestos shingles held the top spot until the early 1950s. New asphalt-based roofing materials were cut into their market share (which overtook asbestos-based roofing products by the 1960s). Asbestos-based roofing products were no longer used after around 1980, but many buildings still standing and in use, today continue to be covered with asbestos shingles.

Asbestos shingles become dangerous to human health whenever they are installed. The shingles are disturbed during the installation and preparation process or cut into a proper size. This causes the particles to enter the air, and if protection isn’t used, a person can breathe in the asbestos fibers, which will cause various asbestos-related illnesses. Installing asbestos shingles isn’t the only problem; removing them can also send asbestos airborne. Roof shingles can’t just be pulled off but must instead be removed with hammers, drills, and saws. This will disturb the asbestos on the tiles and cause the same health risks for unaware people.

Construction Workers And Asbestos Exposure From Ceilings And Floors

It was common between the 1930s and late 1970s to spray or paint the ceilings of homes and low-rise office buildings with stucco. Stucco is a decorative covering made of sand, cement, and other additives. Often, one of those additives was asbestos.

Many builders preferred stucco to alternative ceiling materials such as tiling and wood. First, stucco was easy to apply. It could be rolled on like paint or shot out of a spray gun. Second, it was cheaper than wood or tiles. Third, it held up better over the years. Fourth, it greatly improved a room’s acoustic characteristics. And fifth, it was attractive—asbestos stucco ceilings were usually a very bright white that made rooms seem cheerier. Additional reasons why builders made extensive use of asbestos stucco ceilings (also known as popcorn ceilings or textured ceilings) were fire resistance and better thermal performance.

Like in the walls and roof, asbestos flooring was very dangerous. Whenever flooring was carried from the trucks to the job site, it took more than a few hits and impacts. Additionally, the floor was often cut to fit the size of the home’s flooring. Removing asbestos-covered flooring also involved quite a few impacts whenever it was pulled up.

As the asbestos is removed from a surface and placed into the air, it can split into invisible particles that are very easy to breathe into the naked eye. The shape of these broken strands makes it very difficult for the body’s natural defenses to repel them and get them out of the body, and they lie dormant until they start to infect other cells.

Construction Workers And Asbestos Exposure From Electrical Systems

For construction workers, electrical systems represented a health risk if those systems contained asbestos. Many, if not most, of those systems contained asbestos at one point. Asbestos was used as electrical insulation for high-voltage and household-voltage applications. It was also used as low-voltage insulation for telephone cables. Asbestos electrical insulation—which offered fire-resistance and heat-containment properties—was desirable for protecting wires and conduction surfaces from moisture and from one another (to prevent arcing or short circuiting).

Asbestos electrical insulation was added to:

HVAC systems
Lighting systems
sump pumps
construction machinery
portable tools, generators
and welding equipment

Any construction worker who stripped off or disturbed these electrical insulations would send the particles into the air, then enter an unprotected person’s lungs. Then they would be at an increased risk for illnesses such as asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma.

Construction Workers And Asbestos Exposure From Cement Pipes

Construction workers and plumbers have found themselves near cement pipes, and piping made with asbestos whenever they lay the pipes, remove them or dispose of them, all of which creates a disturbance that allows the asbestos to go into the air. Those construction workers were exposed to asbestos particles, and they could now be at risk for the diseases that asbestos particles in the lung can cause.

Asbestos cement pipe—also known as transite pipe—was introduced in the 1930s. It was often used for underground water mains, sewer lines, and street runoff lines. Asbestos cement pipe also was used for chimney flues. Demand for asbestos cement pipe was strong in the U.S. and remained that way until the 1970s when more than a half-million miles of it had been laid. Driving that demand was asbestos cement pipe’s reputation for being relatively lightweight yet durable enough to remain in service for a half-century.

Since the pipes are so durable (with many just now reaching the end of their service life after a half-century), more and more construction workers are being called in to remove the piping. During the removal process, the workers on the job must take additional protective measures to ensure they are kept safe.

Construction Workers’ Rights To Compensation After Asbestos Exposure

If asbestos exposure has caused you or someone you love to develop any asbestos-related illness, from malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis, you have the right to compensation. You may have the treatment costs reimbursed for you, and you can be paid an additional sum of money for pain and suffering as a result of your exposure.

Asbestos Exposure Lawsuits:

One of the ways you can get your cash is to bring a lawsuit against the companies that made the affected products. If you win your exposure lawsuit, you won’t just be bringing a company to justice but also gaining compensation in the form of 6 to 7 figures,

Asbestos Exposure Settlements:

Most companies don’t want to mess with people exposed to asbestos because they aren’t arguing their innocence in the crime; they are arguing that yes, you or your loved one was hurt due to asbestos exposure… but it wasn’t their fault. Most companies don’t want to do that, so they will try and settle out of court.

Asbestos Exposure Trust Claims:

Even if the company has filed for bankruptcy, there are special systems you can work with to ensure you get the justice you deserve. You can make an asbestos claim under this system (called an asbestos trust) and get your compensation. Contact us today.

Do You Have A Claim?

If your health has been affected by exposure to asbestos, report it here.

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