Michael McCann

While power plants are vital to the operation of many facilities, schools, and campuses throughout New England, they were also a major source of asbestos exposure to power plant workers through the 1980’s. At a typical multi-building facility, the power plant was the building that generated steam to heat the other buildings in the facility. This was a common design for manufacturing facilities and college campuses that were made up of multiple buildings. Back in the 20th century, most of these power plants utilized dozens upon dozens of asbestos-containing products. What types of asbestos-containing products were used in these power plants?

First, the biggest piece of equipment in these power plants were the boilers that generated the steam for the rest of the facility. Large, steam-generating boilers utilized many different asbestos-containing components, including insulation, refractory material, and gaskets. Insulation and refractory material needed to be replaced periodically throughout the lifetime of the boiler. Repairing these materials could expose the power plant worker to hazardous asbestos dust.

The gaskets on these large boilers were found in various places. The biggest gasket went around the boiler door. This gasket had to be removed and replaced each time the boiler door was opened. Gaskets were also used around the other manways and handholes on the boiler. Manways were other openings on the boiler that would allow a person to enter the boiler to inspect or repair it. Each time these manways were opened, the gasket needed to be replaced. Handholes were smaller openings on the boiler that allowed for inspection of internal components of the boiler, by sticking in a hand or your head to view the inside of the boiler. These handhole gaskets also had to be replaced each time the handhole was opened. The removing and replacing of these gaskets would create hazardous airborne asbestos dust.

Boilers were certainly not the only products that exposed power plant workers to asbestos. These power plants needed many more pieces of equipment to operate efficiently. This equipment included pumps, valves, steam traps, heat exchangers, and various others types of products. Most of these pieces of equipment used asbestos-containing gaskets and packing material through the 1980s. These pieces of equipment needed to be maintained on a regular basis, and replacing the gaskets and packing on these pieces of equipment would create hazardous airborne asbestos dust.

While a lot of the power plants in Massachusetts that operated during the 20th century are no longer in operation, many are still active today. Our office has handled cases arising from asbestos exposure at a number of power plants in the area, some of those include:

• Phillips Andover Academy: Andover, MA
• Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station: Plymouth, MA
• Bird & Son: E. Walpole, MA
• Dennison Manufacturing: Framingham, MA
• Harvard University: Cambridge, MA
• MIT: Cambridge, MA
• Boston Edison: L Street Station, Edgar Station, and Mystic Station
• Northeastern University: Boston, MA
• Holy Cross University: Worcester, MA
• Boston College: Chestnut Hill, MA
• Brooks School: North Andover, MA
• Groton School: Groton, MA

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness like mesothelioma or lung cancer, and would like to know more about your rights, please call us for a free, confidential consultation at (617) 451-9191.

Most people would be surprised to know that there are a significant number of people who have developed asbestos-related illnesses without working with or around asbestos or asbestos-containing products. Most of these cases involve the spouse or family member of someone who worked with asbestos-containing products. But how did these household members, who never personally worked with asbestos-containing products, get exposed to asbestos dust?

The danger of asbestos arises when asbestos fibers are released into the air and are then breathed into the human body. This typically occurs when asbestos-containing products are repaired and replaced. For instance, when an old asbestos-containing gasket is scraped from a pipe flange, that scraping process releases asbestos-containing dust into the air. In most asbestos cases, the injured person is the worker, who breathes in this dust while personally doing the work.

Unfortunately, that is not the only risk created by asbestos-containing products. The dust from an asbestos-containing product can also get on the clothing of the person doing the work, as well as on the clothing of any individual who is working in the near vicinity. This dust can stay on the worker’s clothing for long periods of time, and when the worker wears his or her dirty work clothing home, the dust can come along for the ride.

Anyone who has done laundry before understands the typical process for washing dirty and dusty clothing. Instead of placing these dirty and dusty clothes directly in the washing machine, most people shake out these clothes in order to get all the dust off of them. Shaking out dirty work clothing creates dust that gets breathed in by the person doing the shaking, as well as by those who are in the area helping out with the laundry. And if the person who wore those dirty clothes worked with or around asbestos-containing products, the dust on those clothes could contain asbestos. We have seen many mesothelioma cases where the injured person’s only exposure to asbestos came from laundering dirty work clothing. This type of exposure to asbestos is called “take home” exposure and doing laundry is one of the more common sources. From an emotional standpoint, these cases are very disheartening, and usually come as a complete shock to families.

These cases also differ from the typical asbestos cases in how the evidence of exposure is put together. The most important part of an asbestos case is product identification. The Plaintiff or injured person has to prove they were exposed to asbestos from certain products. Typically, it is the injured person who will identify from which products he or she was exposed to asbestos. However, in “take home” exposure cases, the injured person is someone who didn’t work with asbestos products, and is unlikely to know which products they might have been exposed to. Therefore, in “take home” exposure cases, the more knowledgeable witness, with regard to product identification, is usually the spouse or household member who actually worked with the asbestos products and brought asbestos dust home on their work clothing. The spouse or household member can testify about the work he or she did with asbestos or asbestos-containing products and the condition of their work clothing when it was worn home. This evidence, combined with testimony that the injured person laundered the dirty work clothing, is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of product identification.

Unfortunately, these types of cases have become much more common in recent years. Our firm has handled many of these cases, and has the knowledge and experience needed to succeed in this complex area of litigation.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness like mesothelioma or lung cancer, and would like to know more about your rights, please call us for a free, confidential consultation at (617) 451-9191.

One of the most common questions that I receive from my clients who have filed lawsuits for injuries resulting from asbestos exposure is whether their claims are a part of a class action lawsuit. We file individual lawsuits on behalf of our clients; your claims are not part of a class action.

Class actions are a very unique type of lawsuit. They consist of a large class of plaintiffs who have all suffered similar injuries that were caused by a common defendant or defendants. If a settlement is reached in a class action, those settlement proceeds are then divided among the entire universe of plaintiffs that are in the class.

The asbestos lawsuits that we file on behalf of our clients are separate, individual cases that are not connected to any other cases. They are not class actions. Each case has its own complaint and its own civil action number. The injured party and his/or her spouse will be the only plaintiffs named in the case. This ensures that each one of our clients’ cases receives the individual attention that it deserves.

Another common question regarding asbestos lawsuits has been asked over the years is: “Are we going to sue my employer?” The answer here is that the Massachusetts statute that governs workers’ compensation bars any third party tort claims against the claimants’ employers. This means that if you suffer a work-related injury, and you want to recover damages for that injury from your employer, your only remedy is through workers’ compensation. You typically cannot sue your employer in a tort case for a work-related injury; you must go through workers’ compensation.

So who are the defendants in an asbestos case? Asbestos lawsuits typically name as defendants the companies that manufactured and sold the asbestos-containing products to which the injured person was exposed. These companies are required to design safe products and to warn about the dangers associated with the products they manufacture and sell. That did not happen with asbestos. Other potential defendants include companies that sold or distributed asbestos-containing products, as well as those who used asbestos-containing products at their premises. Each asbestos case is unique and the facts of your case will determine who the defendants in your case will be.

At Shepard Law, we take an individual approach with each client and with each case. With our extensive experience litigating asbestos-related personal injury claims, we put our clients in the best situations for them to maximize their recovery. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or lung cancer and would like to know more about your rights, please call us for a free, confidential consultation at (617) 451-9191.