ASBESTOS IN THE NEWS
Widow of deceased Woolworths worker says company caused husband's mesothelioma

Career worker for Woolworths' retail chain dies of mesothelioma after years of asbestos exposure on the job, his wife alleges.

Weitz & Luxenberg has protected the legal rights of workers since 1986. And in that time the firm's mesothelioma lawyers have won several billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients injured by job-related asbestos exposure.

August 19, 2009 – The widow of a deceased Woolworths employee charges the company caused her husband's death from asbestos-related mesothelioma last August and that she has decided to take legal action against the retail company, Asbestos.com reports today.

Mesothelioma is a rare cancer almost exclusively caused by occupational asbestos exposure.

Her husband, Les Sarjeant, had a long career with Woolworths, a retail chain store that sold discounted merchandise. First hired as a stock room employee during his teenage years, Mr. Sarjeant went on to work at several different store locations throughout his employment with the company.

“He worked for Woolworths for most of his life really,” Mrs. Sarjeant said. “He started when he was 16 and he was working in the stock room. There was quite a lot of asbestos in things like covers for ironing boards and he would carry them up to stock them on the counters.”

Mrs. Sarjeant said she believes her husband’s long career at Woolworths contributed to the asbestos exposure that led to his death.

Mr. Sarjeant, who was ill for 18 months before passing away at the age of 74, was diagnosed with mesothelioma shortly before his death, and at least 50 years after his initial contact with the toxic fiber – not an uncommonly long mesothelioma latency period.

Mesothelioma cancer is almost always contracted through occupational asbestos exposure and has a latency period that can last decades before it is diagnosed, as evidenced by this case.

Despite the long gestation period, mesothelioma life expectancy is short. Patients usually lose their battle against mesothelioma within one year of being diagnosed.

While still in the early process of pursuing legal action against the retailer, Mrs. Sarjeant is hopeful that the company’s insurers will accept responsibility. Woolworths’ insurers have not yet accepted responsibility, so Mrs. Sarjeant may have to follow through on her decision to file a mesothelioma lawsuit.

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