ASBESTOS CEMENT SHINGLES

Though prized for their outdoor resilience to fire and weather, asbestos cement shingles have created a perfect storm unto themselves.

Even today, 30 years after the enactment of stringent asbestos regulations, construction workers still risk asbestos exposure during renovation and demolition projects. Work activities that involve damaging old asbestos-based building products, like cement shingles or asbestos wallboard, can still lead to occupational asbestos diseases like mesothelioma.

ASBESTOS CEMENT SHINGLES

July 20, 2010 – One hundred years ago the U.S. construction industry created a new building material by combining asbestos with cement. Asbestos was lightweight, durable and resistant to fire and corrosion.

The combination of asbestos and cement gave birth to a versatile new material that was moldable, lightweight, fire proof and resistant to weather – an “almost perfect” substance that could easily be molded to create sturdy building products, including asbestos cement shingles.

The combination of asbestos with cement was almost perfect because, despite being a lightweight, economical and durable new building material, asbestos-based construction products have killed thousands of construction workers who perished from occupational asbestos exposure.

Accidental inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers at a work site is the primary pathway for asbestos exposure, which is known to cause mesothelioma, the deadliest of asbestos-related diseases and responsible for the deaths of some 3,000 people in the United States every year.

Asbestos-related diseases have a long latency period that may last decades before symptoms of a disease can be diagnosed. Consequently, workers exposed 30 or 40 years ago are still susceptible to asbestos disease.

Asbestos cement shingle workers risk disease

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), if asbestos cement shingles and other asbestos cement building products are damaged, sanded, cut or drilled, these activities can release asbestos fibers into the air creating a hazardous work site and ripe conditions for job-related asbestos exposure.

Before the 1970s, when federal and state asbestos regulations were first enacted, cement plant workers, too, were at great risk for asbestos exposure, given the daily work detail of mixing asbestos dust with cement dust in a confined space like an industrial plant.

But even construction workers today risk exposure to asbestos during renovation or demolition work. Work duties that involve damaging asbestos-based building products, like cement shingles or wallboard, can still lead to work-site asbestos exposure.

Weitz & Luxenberg – Asbestos-injury law firm

If you were employed in the construction industry before the mid-1970s, and worked with asbestos cement shingles or other similar products, you could easily have been exposed to asbestos.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease like asbestosis or mesothelioma, you have the legal right to seek financial compensation for medical bills and lost wages by filing a mesothelioma claim.

Weitz & Luxenberg has successfully represented thousands of asbestos-injured construction workers against employers that failed to provide safety equipment and product manufacturers who neglected to warn consumers of the health hazards associated with their products.

For a free case review, please contact Weitz & Luxenberg through the communication form at left. Our firm has long been recognized by the nation’s legal community for obtaining record-setting verdicts and settlements for asbestos-injured workers.