JUSTICE KENNEDY:
Asbestosis patients who fear developing cancer

Justice Kennedy discusses Norfolk v. Ayers asbestos case and asbestosis patients who fear developing cancer.

Contrast this recovery with the prospects of an employee who does not yet have asbestosis but who in fact will develop asbestos-related cancer.

Cancers caused by asbestos have long periods of latency. Their symptoms do not become manifest for decades after exposure. See Selikoff et al., Latency of Asbestos Disease Among Insulation Workers in the United States and Canada, 46 Cancer 2736, 2740 (1980) (lung cancer becomes manifest 15–24 years after exposure); A. Churg & F. Green, Pathology of Occupational Lung Disease 350 (2d ed. 1998) (“The latency period for asbestos-induced mesothelioma is long, with a mean value of 30 to 40 years”); see generally Mustacchi, Lung Cancer Latency and Asbestos Liability, 17 J. Legal Med. 277 (June 1996) (discussing the pathogenesis of asbestos-related carcinomata).

These cancers inflict excruciating pain and distress—pain more severe than that associated with asbestosis, distress more harrowing than the fear of developing a future illness.

Opinion of Justice Kennedy in Norfolk & Western Railway Company, Petitioner v. Freeman Ayers et al.

Time to seek justice!

Government sources estimate that in the next decade more than 35,000 people nationwide will be diagnosed with the deadliest form of asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma. This disease is most often the result of industrial workplace exposure to asbestos – and usually contracted through employers’ blatant disregard for the health and safety of their workers.

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