Who is At Risk?

Husbands, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters.  People who worked with or around asbestos develop mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis.  Family members of the people who worked with or around asbestos who brought the asbestos home on their clothing are also at risk.

The incidence of mesothelioma is higher in those who worked around asbestos products longer and with higher intensity, like people in the construction trades. Because of the latency period (the time from the first exposure to airborne asbestos particles and the time that mesothelioma first appears), the tumor may not appear until after the worker has retired.

Those workers who were closely exposed to asbestos, such as insulators, pipefitters, plasterers, and boilermakers, are at highest risk.  However, many people with mesothelioma had very little on-the-job exposure or were exposed to asbestos "second-hand.” For example, people who worked only a summer job in construction as a teenager or who only did occasional brake work develop mesothelioma.  Wives who washed their husband's clothes and children who hugged their fathers when they came home from work develop mesothelioma.

There are also many people diagnosed with mesothelioma who did not know they were ever exposed to asbestos. The lawyers of O’Brien Law Firm know how to discover and determine when and how you were exposed to asbestos and which companies are responsible for your asbestos exposure. The following list is not exclusive, but is a sampling of groups which often had asbestos exposure and have suffered from mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancers, and asbestosis:

Asbestos Workers/Insulators Bricklayers Boilermakers Carpenters Chemical Plant Workers Electricians Floor Tile Layers Iron Workers Laborers Navy serviceman aboard ships	Operating Engineers Pipefitters Plasterers Plumbers Power Plant Workers Refinery Workers Sewer and Pressure Pipe Installers Sheet Metal Workers Shipyard Workers Stationary Engineers