The family of an electrician who died from lung cancer as a result of asbestos exposure during his 15 years working for Carnival Cruise Lines has been awarded a $10.3 million verdict. This asbestos cancer lawsuit marks the first time an asbestos exposure case against a cruise line has gone to trial.

According the asbestos lung cancer lawsuit, the decedent, Benedetto C., was exposed to asbestos long-term while working on four steamships that had engine rooms and machine spaces insulated with asbestos. In 2001, he was diagnosed with asbestos lung cancer and four years later he died of the disease. His family filed the asbestos cancer lawsuit in 2006.

Even though Benedetto smoked 20 years prior to his death, the Miami jury still rendered damages in the amount of $10.3 million dollars, assigning 65 percent of the liability to Benedetto. The verdict awarded $10 million for pain and suffering, $192,000 in damages to Benedetto’s widow, Giovanna, $128,000 in lost earnings, and $19,504 in funeral expenses. Carnival Cruise Lines is liable for $3.6 million of the verdict.

Although Benedetto had quit smoking before being hired by Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines, the defendant’s lawyers argued that smoking and not asbestos exposure was solely responsible for Benedetto’s lung cancer. The cruise line also presented testimony from a corporate representative that the company was “unaware of the presence of the harmful toxin on its ships,” according to mesethelioma.com, suggesting that the case was circumstantial since all four of the steamships in question had been scrapped and it was impossible to prove that Benedetto had been exposed to asbestos on any of them.

A former Carnival chief engineer testified for the plaintiffs that asbestos had been present in the machine spaces and engine rooms on the ships where Benedetto worked. Both before and after Benedetto’s death, two doctors determined that Benedetto’s lung cancer was related to his asbestos exposure 10 to 15 years earlier while he worked for Carnival Cruise Lines.

Dangers Of Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos is naturally present in the air, water, and soil and does not cause most people to become ill. Those most significantly impacted are people who have extended exposure, typically through work or substantial environmental contact.

Asbestos exposure may result in mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer that forms in the lung tissue, usually in the cells lining the air passages. For people who suffer asbestosis — a chronic, progressive deterioration of the lungs caused by large amounts or long-term asbestos exposure punctuated by lung inflammation that results in shortness of breath, coughing, and permanent lung damage — cigarette smoking aggravates the condition.

Until the 1970s, asbestos was widely used in many American commercial industries such as strengthening cement and plastics, providing roofing insulation, fireproofing and soundproofing, as well as for the shipbuilding industry to insulate boilers, steam pipes, and hot water pipes. In 1989 the EPA banned most asbestos-containing products, but the regulation was overturned in 1991 by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, allowing uses established prior to 1989.

Workers that are at the greatest risk for asbestos-related lung diseases are those who were not protected while making, installing, or removing products containing asbestos. Those who worked near others who did these jobs also are at risk for second hand asbestos exposure.

In addition to asbestos lung cancer, prolonged exposure to asbestos can cause a number of respiratory illnesses, including asbestosis, mesothelioma, pleural plaque and pleural effusion.