Electricians are one of the types of workers most at risk of exposure to toxic asbestos. This naturally occurring mineral fiber was regularly used in construction materials throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and was only banned from use in the United States in 1989. When contractors and electricians work in a building constructed prior to the 1980’s, they are often at risk of inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers. These fibers can lodge in the lungs and cause the onset of such fatal diseases as asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the protective lining of the lungs, heart, chest and abdomen.
It has been reported that from 1990 to 1999, the construction was the most frequently listed occupation (24%) on U.S. death certificates of persons over the age of 15 for whom asbestosis was listed as the cause of death. Of those, 4.4% listed “electrician” or “former electrician” as their vocation. Plus, a 1995 British study revealed that construction workers, including electricians, were the workers at greatest risk of contracting asbestos cancer. According to OSHA, the most common causes of renovation job injury include falls, electrocution, exposure to overhead objects and airborne contaminants, such as dust, asbestos and silica.
In the past decade there have been a handful of major lawsuits against large corporations for exposing electricians to the asbestos that eventually ended their lives. In 2006, an Ohio appeals court ruled that General Motors knew that an electrician was in danger from asbestos in the insulation on steam pipes and in wiring. In 2007, the family of a California electrician who died of malignant mesothelioma settled with six defendants for $2.3 million before the wrongful death case even went to trial. And most recently, a jury in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania found eight manufacturers liable for the asbestos-related death of former Navy electrician’s mate, David Lanpher.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2011 at 12:40 pm and is filed under News.
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