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(c) 2010-2024 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

US Workers Continue to be Exposed to Asbestos

Asbestos Insulation
Asbestos is not banned in the US and continues to be a cause of deadly disease to workers. Asbestos, a deadly substance that causes a range of fatal diseases from asbestosis to malignancies including lung cancer and mesothelioma. Today the Detroit Free Press enlightens its readers to the asbestos problems that Michigan workers face daily. Those problems continued to be mirrored in all the states and is a national issue.

"At a time when blight removal is at historic highs and a record number of contractors are getting into the asbestos-abatement business in Michigan, the state's worker safety agency rarely gets tough with employers who expose their workers to the deadly toxin, a Free Press investigation has found."
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"The investigation also found dozens of cases of unlicensed contractors and untrained workers removing asbestos improperly: In one, the crew included workers hired from a homeless shelter — people lured by the promise of easy cash and not likely to complain about working conditions. In others, workers weren’t told they were removing asbestos or given proper clothing and respirators. In some, proper decontamination procedures weren't followed and debris was disposed of in ordinary garbage bags instead of airtight containers, potentially exposing many others to the contaminant."
Click here to read this article as well as the companion articles in the series.
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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  has been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.