In the construction trade, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, boiler workers, brick layers and bulldoze operators are all at high risk for exposure to asbestos, especially if their activities involve the renovation or demolition of an old building.

Before the 1980s, commercial and residential buildings were built and insulated lavishly with asbestos-containing construction materials, later recognized to cause cancer in the tradesmen who worked with them.

Asbestos kills construction workers

Occupational asbestos exposure was the cause of death for a New Jersey unionized pipefitter who lost his left lung to surgery two years ago and soon after died at the age of 48. Throughout his 30-year career as a pipefitter he moved from job site to job site unknowingly working in direct contact with the toxic materials that are strictly regulated today.

Up until recently, these products all had very high asbestos contents and, unfortunately, were marketed by manufacturers without health warning labels. Courts today recognize the liability of asbestos-product manufacturers for this reason. Their culpability in the deaths of thousands of construction workers has led to asbestos-injury lawsuits that have garnered very large verdicts and settlements for the victims and their surviving family members.

Asbestos construction law suit

Shortly before the New Jersey pipefitter died, he retained New York-based law firm Weitz & Luxenberg to represent him in an asbestos-injury claim against the manufacturers of the products that killed him. Two weeks after his deposition he succumbed to the horrors of mesothelioma. His wife and two sons, aged 8 and 10, received checks totaling $2.1 million in a settlement negotiated by the family’s law firm.

Construction workers long threatened by asbestos

Asbestos was used abundantly throughout the 20th century in hundreds of construction products to give them strength and make them resistant to fire. Ironically, the lives saved by these coveted attributes were vastly overshadowed by the lives lost to the cancer-causing elements inherent in asbestos.

Mesothelioma cancer is the most virulent of asbestos-related diseases. Every year, mesothelioma claims 90,000 lives worldwide. In the United States, 3,000 cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed annually. The prognosis is never good because there is no cure for the disease. Patient life expectancy after being diagnosed with mesothelioma is normally six to 18 months.

Mesothelioma is primarily an occupational disease contracted through the inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers that dislodge from aging, broken or deteriorating asbestos-made construction products that include: floor and ceiling tiles, building insulation, and asbestos wraps found on steam pipes and boilers.

Weitz & Luxenberg

If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma and seek a free legal consultation, please notify us through the communication form or a computer link on this page. We will pursue your claim with vigilance to help you pay for medical bills, future and past lost wages, and damages. There is no cost to you until we obtain a settlement or a verdict in your favor.

Weitz & Luxenberg is recognized as the nation’s preeminent asbestos-injury law firm. Its lawyers earned that reputation valiantly over the last 25 years by obtaining record-setting verdicts and settlements for clients ravaged by the mortal symptoms of asbestos-related mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer.