Articles Posted in Asbestos Exposure

With a population shift favoring urban habitation, parts of the city that people had little desire to move to are suddenly becoming expensive places to rent or buy.  Because of this demand, older homes and structures are constantly being renovated. This redevelopment has been good for the city, but has also resulted in serious asbestos exposure risks for Boston construction workers.

Boston Mesothelioma LawyerOld, rundown residential buildings being gutted to the frames and completely renovated into luxury apartments of condominiums. Land developers are purchasing abandoned factories and warehouses and converting them into high-end residential units. Some buildings are simply too far gone, so the land development firms will simply purchase them so they can be razed with new mixed use buildings constructed in their place.  Mixed use has become a big thing these days where there are retail shops, restaurants, and supermarkets on the lower levels and apartments on the top floors.  There are even some buildings with bars and restaurants on the roof.

Asbestos in building materials was common during the era in which these older buildings were initially constructed.

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Boston is a city of buildings that were constructed at a time when asbestos was heavily used in virtually all aspects of construction. Yes, there are historical buildings in Beacon Hill that were built at time before the industrial revolution, but many of the buildings in our city were constructed during the Victorian era at the heart of the industrial revolution in the United States and Western Europe.  This is the reason we have so many Victorian style buildings and Queen Ann Victorians with large round towers and ornate exteriors.

asbestos lawsuits BostonAs time went on, and newer buildings were constructed including the three deckers we find all over Boston, asbestos was still used heavily. It was used because of its abundance, which made it cheap, and the fact that it is naturally resistant to heat, fire, caustic chemicals, and electricity.  It is also an excellent chemical bonding agent, as was discovered later.  For this reason, asbestos fibers were added to many different construction products. It was used in flooring materials including tiles, and wallboard materials, as drywall was replacing plaster as the material of choice, and wall joint compounds.  Continue reading

Asbestos was used in just about every aspect of the construction process from the 1850s to the late 1970s.  This is true in Boston, and it also true throughout the United States and Western Europe. There are a lot of reasons that asbestos was used so heavily beginning with the Industrial Revolution, but that was not the first time asbestos was used.

Mesothelioma Lawyers What many people may not realize is that humans have used asbestos for thousands of years.  This is because asbestos is not a manmade product, but rather a naturally occurring element.  Yes, it is true that it was often mined and refined into many consumer products, but it was also used in its natural state. Continue reading

Establishing liability for asbestos-related lung cancer can be challenging for aBoston Mesothelioma Lawyer number of reasons – not the least of which being that lung cancer has numerous known causes. Mesothelioma, on the other hand, is only known to be caused by exposure to asbestos. Proving lung cancer was caused by negligent asbestos exposure – and not something else – can be a challenge for your personal injury attorneys. You need to be sure they are up to it.

A recent court opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit involved a man who worked at a major regional power and energy company for more than two decades and was later diagnosed with asbestos-related lung cancer. He died in 1997. Four years later, his wife was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Her ensuing injury lawsuit alleged she was exposed to “take-home” asbestos, via her husband’s work clothing.

Many people think of lung cancer solely as a smoker’s disease. That’s not always the case, and asbestos has been definitively shown to cause lung cancer. Still, smokers could be at higher risk of developing asbestos-related diseases, including lung cancer and mesothelioma. They are no less entitled to damages, but proving causation with thorough evidence and expert witness testimony is key.  Continue reading

Although one can’t control the weather, property owners should brace themselves for the fact that major storms could result in destruction that could heighten the risk of asbestos exposure.

This was illustrated in the Denver area recently, when the city was hit with a major hailstorm.  There were dramatic images captured at the Colorado Rockies’ Mile High stadium, with Coors Field being slammed with hail the size of golf balls.

Boston Asbestos Exposure While people are normally concerned about hail doing damage to cars or possibly causing personal injury if the pieces are large enough, they are not normally associated with an asbestos exposure scare.  However, this was exactly what happened in the case of one elementary school that is now closed, according to a recent report from The Denver Post. Continue reading

Asbestos issues plague Boston, particularly anytime a property owner delves into a renovation. The fact is, Boston is an older city and many construction materials from the last century utilized this toxic substance. Anytime those fibers are disturbed, the risk of dangerous exposure exists .

According to a recent news report form Fox 25 Boston, tenants in a Boston area apartment complex were shocked to learn that a supposedly routine bathroom renovation has created a serious asbestos exposure scare.  At this point, the Commonwealth is involved in the case, and the asbestos abatement project is suspended as an investigation is conducted.

Boston Mesothelioma The trouble started when the landlord allegedly sent a letter to residents on April 5, 2017 informing them that renovations are being performed to make the place better, and this includes newly renovated bathrooms.  Everyone was seemingly on board with this announcement, because who wouldn’t want a newly remodeled bathroom? Continue reading

When a person is diagnosed with any type of cancer, especially very aggressive malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), one of the most important questions a victim and his or her family will often have for an oncologist is, “How advanced is the cancer?”  There are questions about how long the victim has left to live and if the cancer can be cured or treated.

treatmentWhile the prognosis for malignant pleural mesothelioma is often not very good, and the victim may have only a very short time left to live if the cancer was not caught early enough, to give the most accurate answer possible, an oncologist will have to stage the cancer.  We often hear the term Stage 3 or Stage 4 cancer or even end-stage cancer, but we may not really know what those terms mean. Continue reading

According to a recent news report in the Union Leader, part of building that was heavily damaged in a fire last summer has collapsed, resulting in an asbestos exposure scare.  This building was the site of a June 2016 fire that killed four people.

construction siteWhen the fire broke out, it was in the overnight hours, and the entire family of four tragically died.  The classic New England three-decker, as they are often called, was left a burnt out shell of its former self.  It has been abandoned since the fire and has been slated for demolition for several months.  Continue reading

A new study found the highest asbestos-related cancer rate in New England, specifically in Maine.

Asbestos has been used all over the world in many different applications for hundreds of years.  However, it was during the Industrial Revolution that began in the mid 1800’s when the heaviest use of asbestos began.

Maine AsbestosAsbestos itself is a mineral that occurs naturally and is comprised of six silica elements.  While it doesn’t seem remarkable at first glance, it can withstand extreme amounts of heat, fire, electricity and caustic chemicals.  It is also chemically perfect to serve as bonding agent in many applications such as construction adhesive.    The downside, as we all known today, is that asbestos causes a very aggressive type of cancer known as malignant mesothelioma. Continue reading

Asbestos is a naturally-occurring mineral that has been used by humans for around 2,000 years.  However, it was between the 1850s and the 1980s that asbestos was used in virtually every aspect of residential, commercial and industrial construction, as well as in countless production operations. This primarily began during the Industrial Revolution and continued until the EPA attempted to ban the use asbestos.

asbestosThe reason we say attempted to ban the use of asbestos is because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that outlawed asbestos use in the late 1970s was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court as being unconstitutional a few years after it was passed.  The reason being not that Congress couldn’t outlaw asbestos, but that EPA couldn’t do it through regulations without Congress first passing a law and the president signing that law. Continue reading

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