Laws and Legal Remedies for Workers Exposed to Asbestos, Can I sue for asbestos exposure? the answer is absolute YES YOU CAN.
Workers who have been damaged by asbestos exposure may be eligible to sue for damages under the grounds of negligence or product liability.
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What happened to you or a family member?
CAN I SUE FOR ASBESTOS EXPOSURE
Asbestos is unquestionably dangerous, according to scientists. As a result, businesses must generally safeguard employees from the health dangers connected with asbestos exposure.
If you don’t, you’re likely to face a lawsuit and maybe huge financial penalties.
We’ll go over how asbestos affects construction workers and what a worker would need to prove in order to win a claim for asbestos-related injuries in the parts that follow.
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF ASBESTOS EXPOSURE FOR CONSTRUCTION WORKERS?
Asbestos is a tiny fibre found in a variety of building products, including insulation, floor tiles, and other building components.
During the removal of asbestos materials for renovations, restorations, or demolitions, construction workers might be exposed to high levels of asbestos inhalation.
Asbestos fibres in the air can cause a variety of serious illnesses. It has the potential to produce mesothelioma, a cancer of the membrane lining the lung or stomach cavity that is deadly.
It can potentially lead to lung cancer, one of the deadliest cancers. It can also produce asbestosis, which is a scar-like tissue formation in the lungs that can cause lung function loss, disability, and even death.
CASES OF ASBESTOS-RELATED PERSONAL INJURY
The majority of asbestos-related personal injury claims are filed under the legal theory of negligence, but others are filed under the idea of product liability.
NEGLIGENCE-RELATED CLAIMS
A worker who has been injured by asbestos exposure must normally prove three components in order to win a negligence case: that the defendant had a duty to safeguard the worker from asbestos exposure, that the defendant failed that duty, and that the violation caused the worker harm.
In most states, employers have a near-total obligation to protect workers from asbestos-related injury.
Employers must monitor air quality in any setting where asbestos is reasonably expected to be present, according to OSHA standards. Workers must be safeguarded when asbestos levels become hazardous.
Workers can be safeguarded in a number of ways. Asbestos may be removed from the air using the equipment.
To avoid being exposed to hazardous air, respirator equipment might be utilized instead.
Employers may also be compelled to limit the number of time workers spend in possibly asbestos-contaminated areas in order to reduce potential exposure.
Any time a construction company fails to protect a worker against asbestos exposure, it is referred as to a breach. Possible breaches include the following:
- neglecting to monitor asbestos levels in the air when they should have been predicted
- neglecting to employ ventilation systems to lower asbestos levels in enclosed locations
- not providing personal monitoring devices to employees; or
- not limiting worker exposure to infectious air for a set period of time.
The most typical types of damages in negligence instances include:
- the cost of healthcare
- income loss (for time missed from work due to the injury)
- distress and anguish, as well as
- loss of normal life (a person’s life having a worse quality as a result of an injury).
Causation is frequently the most contested aspect in lawsuits concerning asbestos exposure. The key question is whether the worker’s injuries were caused by his or her exposure to asbestos.
Consider the case of a worker who has been diagnosed with lung cancer after twenty years of replacing insulation in enclosed places.
The worker employs an expert witness (via his attorney) who testifies that the worker was most likely exposed to dangerously high quantities of asbestos during his employment.
The worker’s employer, on the other hand, points out that he has smoked throughout his career.
The jury must decide whether the worker’s lung cancer was caused by asbestos or cigarettes. The employer could be held accountable for millions of dollars in damages if the jury finds that the asbestos-caused cancer.
The worker and his family will not be compensated if the jury determines that smoking caused cancer.
In this case, the jury would consider both sides’ expert witness testimony to determine whose expert’s testimony is more credible. It’s possible that the case will end in a tie.
The point is that the issue of causation is frequently at the heart of asbestos claims. A worker can only win if he or she can show that asbestos was the cause of their injuries. It’s not always easy.
CONCLUSION
Asbestos fibres in the air can cause a variety of serious illnesses. Employers have a near-total obligation to protect workers from asbestos-related injury.
A worker must prove three components in order to win a negligence case:
that the defendant had a duty to safeguard the worker from asbestos exposure, and that the violation caused harm. Workers can be safeguarded in a number of ways. Employers may be compelled to limit the number of time workers spend in potentially asbestos-contaminated areas.
Asbestos may be removed from the air using equipment, or respirator equipment might be utilized instead. The issue of causation is frequently at the heart of asbestos claims. A worker can only win if they can show that asbestos was the cause of their injuries.
A personal injury case for asbestos exposure can be brought against manufacturers of asbestos-containing products or against equipment designed to protect workers.
Liability Claims for Products
A personal injury case for asbestos exposure can be brought against the manufacturers of asbestos-containing products (on the theory that the product was unreasonably dangerous), or even against the manufacturer of safety equipment designed to protect a worker from asbestos exposure when the equipment fails to function properly.
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