Electrician Diagnosed With Mesothelioma | New York City Personal Injury
Electrician Diagnosed with Mesothelioma
You’ve worked as an electrician, and you’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma. You’re trying to figure out, “How did you get this disease?” Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney, and I want to talk to you about the types of exposures to asbestos that electricians faced. Now, in order to do that, I want to talk to you about a former client of mine who’s a member of Local 3, which is the electrician’s union here in New York, where we’re shooting this video right now. This particular client was diagnosed with mesothelioma, and he was exposed to asbestos in a lot of different ways. He worked with electrical panel boards, which controlled the electricity for a residential or commercial space. That’s where the electric current comes in from the street, and it is sent out through the switches to the building. In the back of the panel boards was asbestos containing Bakelite, that acted as a insulator between the busbar and the switches. From time to time, he’d have to drill or cut through that Bakelite, to fabricate the panel boards or to install and remove them.
Where Does Asbestos Exposure Occur
He was exposed to dust from cutting the Bakelite. He also worked throughout the course of his career with switches – switches and arc chutes – which had asbestos components. Again, part of it was Bakelite, which he had to manipulate and cut during repair work, which exposed him to asbestos. This former client of mine dealt with large switchgear, which had asbestos components, as well as, large transformers, which had asbestos gaskets that had to be replaced each time the transformer was opened. He also pulled and cut wire that was insulated with asbestos insulation. All of these things throughout the course of an entire working career exposed him to asbestos on a continual daily basis. As a result of those exposures, he developed mesothelioma. Now, his mesothelioma was diagnosed many, many years after he stopped working, and that’s because– and the doctors who evaluated his case said the same thing. The exposure to asbestos, even though, many years prior, caused the mesothelioma decades later. It’s because there’s a period between 20 and 60 years – in some cases – of time between the time of exposure, and the time of diagnosis in mesothelioma.
Why am I telling you this? Because you have questions about mesothelioma. I’m Joe Williams. At our office, we deal with these issues every day. Call our office, we’ll answer your questions. Thank you.