1 post tagged “asbestos lawsuits”

What is occupational asbestos risk? Does the Silent Killer stalk your work place? The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations (CAWR) requires asbestos risk to be identified and assessed. Employers have the explicit duty to protect employees from asbestos risk and to manage the safety of their premises.

The new H.S.E. Regulations, requires the employer, property owner or manager to make an assessment, as to whether asbestos is present or liable to be present, internally or externally.

Asbestos Risk in The Work Place

Chrysotile, also known as white asbestos, used to be the predominant form of asbestos that was used commercially; amphiboles were of minor commercial importance. Asbestos fibers do not have any detectable odor or taste. It does not dissolve in water or evaporate and are resistant to heat, fire, chemical and biological degradation. In terms of building material, it was considered resistant to degradation by salt air, damp and heat – ideal for seaside conditions.

These properties cause the management of environmental asbestos risk to be a highly scientific and expensive effort.

Because of these properties, asbestos has been mined for use in a wide range of manufactured products, mostly in building materials, friction products, and heat-resistant fabrics. Since asbestos exposure had been identified as one of the causes of mesothelioma, all new uses of asbestos have been banned in the United States by the EPA, to lessen occupational asbestos risk.

Asbestos was also the building material of choice close to the sea. Click here to view pictures of asbestos in a seaside holiday destination.

Today, asbestos is heavily regulated and has ceased to exist in all but a few, closely monitored, products and industries. Despite this reduction in usage, a study completed in 1980 by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a subsidiary of the Centers for Disease Control's Prevention (CDC) of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, maintains that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos fibers.

Because of the difficulties in obtaining good quantitative exposure assessments, cumulative exposure expressed in fiber-years is often selected as the common metric for the levels of exposures
reported in epidemiological studies.

Asbestos Risk Management

The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations (CAWR) requires asbestos to be identified and assessed. Regulation 4 (CAWR 2002) places an explicit duty on the employer in occupation to manage the risks from asbestos in their premises.

The new H.S.E. Regulations, requires the employer, property owner or manager to make an assessment, as to whether asbestos is or liable to be present, internally or externally.

The employer, property owner or manager must then produce a written plan to locate and manage the occupational asbestos risk and to implement the plan in an asbestos management programme.

Click here to read more about Asbestos Risk management

Occupations with Asbestos Risk

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related condition and are currently, or have ever been employed in the following occupations, you may be entitled to compensation from the parties responsible for your exposure.

- Bricklayers
- Carpenters
- Cement Finishers
- Construction Workers
- Electricians
- Railroad workers
- Engineers
- Insulators
- Mine workers
- Machinists
- Dry wall removers
- Mechanics
- Teachers
- Metal Workers
- Civil servants
- Pipefitters
- Renovators
- Plumbers
- Asbestos mill factory workers
- Roofers
- Shipyard Workers
- Steamfitters
- Welders
- Wives of the above and of asbestos workers

Security measures to prevent asbestos mesothelioma

The measures taken to prevent take-home contamination are varied. Operators may choose the most effective method for eliminating this hazard based on the unique conditions in the mine, including the nature of the hazard. For example, in one situation providing disposable coveralls could minimize or prevent asbestos take-home contamination. Another situation may require on-site shower facilities coupled with clothing changes to provide the same protection.

The existing standards, together with lower PELs, provide sufficient enforcement authority to ensure that mine operators take adequate measures, when necessary to prevent asbestos take-home contamination.

Commenters urged MSHA to expand the rulemaking to include specific requirements to prevent take-home contamination. NIOSH also encouraged MSHA to adopt measures included in its 1995 Report to Congress on their Workers' Home Contamination Study Conducted under the Workers' Family Protection Act.

Our work on asbestos mesothelioma and related research is published on our Mesothelioma-Junction.com website. Our asbestos picture study of asbestos in a popular seaside holiday distination, entitled: Asbestos Pictures