Increasing studies have illustrated that exposure to asbestos can considerably increase lung cancer risk. Asbestos take-home exposure is also among the significant risks in causing and developing lung cancer.

Asbestos take-home exposure can occur when employees who work in environments that have a high level of exposure to asbestos carry the asbestos fibers home either on their skin or clothing and expose other household members.

For example, the occupations most prone to asbestos exposure includes positions involving renovations, demolitions, and repair. Some of these professions, therefore, involve employees who work as sheet metal workers, plumbers, tilers, auto mechanics, roofers, paper mill workers, and shipyard workers.

California Supreme Court Weighs In on Asbestos Take-Home Exposure

A California Supreme Court had issued a ruling on two asbestos take-home exposure cases. It had held that employers who require employees to use asbestos in the workplace have an obligation to safeguard not only their employees, but their employees’ household members from asbestos exposure.

In Kesner v. Superior Court, the Court held, “where it is reasonably foreseeable that workers, their clothing, or personal effects will act as vectors carrying asbestos from the premises to household members, employers have a duty to take reasonable care to prevent this means of transmission.”

The court also held that obligation to protect against asbestos take-home exposure extends only to members of an employee’s household. It stated that, “the duty is premised on the forseeability of both the regularity and intensity of contact that occurs in a worker’s home, [and] it does not extend beyond this circumscribed category…”

Asbestos Take-Home Exposure Lung Cancer Explained

The most common form of cancer in the U.S. is currently lung cancer, with more than 200,000 Americans being diagnosed with the disease every year. Additionally, it is reportedly the deadliest kind of cancer, killing more Americans than any other type of cancer in the U.S.

Asbestos exposure shares a role in these statistics by killing as many as 12,000 to 15,000 people per year in the U.S. Estimations further report that more people die of lung cancer due to asbestos exposure than from asbestosis or mesothelioma.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are two of the most common types of lung cancer that can develop. It can also occur where the cancer contains characteristics of both types. This is called small cell/large cell cancer.

Approximately 80% of lung cancers developed are non-small cell lung cancer, and 20% are small cell lung cancer. The small cancer cells can multiply quickly in the body forming large tumors, the abnormal growth of tissue, anywhere in the body including lymph nodes and other organs.

The lining of the bronchi, airways in the respiratory tract that conducts air into the lungs, is where most asbestos lung cancer begins. It can, however, also begin in the trachea, bronchioles, or alveoli. It is common for lung cancer to develop slowly as well, but it is also acknowledged that once developed, it can spread to other parts of the body.

If you were exposed to asbestos or a family member suffered asbestos take-home exposure, you may have a legal claim.