Occupational asbestos exposure has left a government employee in a constant state of concern for his physical health and safety.

Plaintiff Charles R. was hired as early as 1994 in a part-time capacity as a janitor for the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall. Five years later, he was offered a full-time position there.

As part of his desire to do a good job right and safely, the plaintiff says he routinely asked for training from management on handling materials marked hazardous and how to use certain equipment necessary for the completion of his duties. According to the narrative of his occupational asbestos exposure lawsuit, these requests were ignored.

In 2005, as part of his job development, Charles R. was asked to start using a tile floor buffer. Again, the plaintiff says he attempted to seek training in its use and inquired regarding safety equipment to don while engaging the high-speed apparatus. The buffer purportedly raised clouds of dust particles when interfacing with the tile floor and those dust clouds tended to remain airborne, according to Charles R.’s account. Eventually, he was given a respirator with a mask that he says did not adequately cover his nose and mouth. Despite numerous request, he was never provided with a better mask, he claims.

Charles R. never considered that the dust particles he was breathing might include asbestos fibers until a member of the public asked whether the tile floors had the hazardous material in them. He passed this inquiry on to his manager, who assured him all was fine.

Eventually, environmental hazards were revealed by an unscheduled inspection of the convention hall facilities by U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) staff in 2015. According to the occupational asbestos exposure lawsuit, one of the infractions discovered by OSHA was the terrible quality of the respirator mask Charles R. was given to use.

It wasn’t until a year later, however, that the ball started rolling on what would become an occupation asbestos exposure lawsuit. In the late fall of 2016, the plaintiff met with the mayor, the local fire chief, and a representative from the Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH). A DOH lab eventually identified asbestos in the floor tiles and buffer use was discontinued. Charles R., in a break with the protocol of the county, was forced to undergo a drug and alcohol screening. Charles alleges that at this point, management of the convention hall then started shunning him and relegated him to his car, rather than allow him to do his normal work tasks.

Charles R. says he is now paid and positively evaluated by his supervisor regularly for a job he never really does. For the past year, he has undergone a shunning of sorts by his superior, who fails to meet with him or give him work assignments.

While Charles R. takes on the drive necessary to get to the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall daily, he spends each workday sitting in his truck in the parking lot without assigned tasks. Just last month, December 2017, he filed his occupational asbestos exposure lawsuit.

He has, however, been exploring his legal options regarding his occupational asbestos exposure for some time. For now, his daily conversations are with drop-in people like the parking lot homeless man, his adult children, his pastor, or an occasional co-worker walking by.

Charles asserts that he will worry about the development of mesothelioma for the rest of his life. On a positive note, however, the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall is set for a professional asbestos removal process that will take up the first half of 2018.