The textile industry was once dominant in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. While most people do not associate the health hazards of asbestos exposure with the textile industry, those hazards became well known after World War II and continue…
While many of us have heard of asbestos, there are a lot of misconceptions about what exactly asbestos is and how it can be harmful. Nearly all uses of asbestos have been prohibited in the United States since 1989, but…
In a recent ruling that may affect asbestos lawsuits in North Carolina, a state court of appeals has deter-mined that a manufacturer may be liable in strict liability for asbestos that was used in another company’s product. In most cases,…
The health hazards of exposure to asbestos fibers are widely known in North Carolina and throughout the United States. Nevertheless, a recent study has shown that federal regulations establishing safe limits for concentration of airborne asbestos fibers have been routinely…
In our last post, we discussed the difficulty of measuring the number of persons who suffer from or who die from exposure to asbestos. Another way to look at the problem is to focus on the environmental conditions that carry…
This blog has repeatedly observed that asbestos still poses a serious health threat, even though the material has been banned for most uses in the United States. Quantifying this health risk is not easy, but no one can deny that…
Many workers in North Carolina have died from exposure to asbestos-containing products, and many of these workers received compensation for the disability and shortened life expectancy caused by this exposure. An issue now emerging is whether the survivors of those…
Asbestos has long been identified as the cause of certain kinds of lung cancer such as mesothelioma and respiratory diseases such asbestosis, but obtaining a reliable number for asbestos-related deaths in a given year has proved more troublesome. A recent…
Two critical elements in any case seeking recovery for a death caused by mesothelioma or other asbestos-related disease are (a) proof that the decedent was exposed to asbestos fibers and (b) proof that the fibers were a substantial factor in…
Most in people in North Carolina are aware that exposure to asbestos fibers can cause various kinds of serious lung diseases, but the risk seems to have disappeared. The use of asbestos in products such as pipe insulation, shingles, and…