Asbestos – Secondary exposure

Secondary Exposure

Historically the vast majority of asbestos related cases in the UK affected males, that remains true to the present day. That’s not surprising considering that ship building/ship repair, engineering and construction were traditionally professions that were dominated by men.

While the balance of men and women in such occupations has slowly but surely started to change in more recent times, that happened too late to explain why we started to see women, and young men, who had never worked with asbestos, start to develop asbestos related conditions from the 1960’s and beyond.  

The answer is as simple as it is tragic.

Workers were coming home with asbestos on their clothes, on their skin and in their hair and hugging their partners and their children and in doing so were exposing the entire household to the deadly mineral.

The contaminated work clothes would usually be washed with the rest of the families dirty clothes so the exposure continued, shared baths and toilets further increased the risks of spreading the fibres to close family and friends.

Even when employers and workers alike started to be more aware of the dangers of using asbestos and using protective equipment and masks at work, very little though was given to what we now term secondary exposure so the risks of bringing the fibres home was not given the prominence it should have been with sometimes devastating consequences.    

Do you think that you may have been a victim of secondary asbestos exposure? If so, speak to Russell Worth Solicitors and see if we can help.