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Illnesses relating to asbestos exposure kill an estimated 10,000 people a year. Asbestos related diseases claim the life of one out of every 125 American men who die over the age of 50 in the United States. Mesothelioma, asbestosis, and pleueral disease are all life threatening ailments associated with asbestos exposure.

According to a recent NY Post news report, an unwell 9/11 first responder who now works as a custodian at a busy Long Island post office has been forbidden to wear a protective face mask when he scrubs the mailroom floors, even though the stressed tiles contain potentially cancer-causing asbestos.

Retired Brooklyn Homicide Detective Michael Doherty, 53, took the job at the Lindenhurst Post Office three years ago to keep himself busy. But he says the dust from the cracked floor tiles are not only making him sick but also could be affecting other workers and contaminating the thousands of pieces of mail at the sorting plant.

He said he was told by bosses not to wear the mask because he hadn’t shown he was certified to use it. Doherty contends the post office doesn’t want him to wear it because it alerts other employees to the presence of asbestos, which he had tested to show its levels exceed federal regulation.

For twenty years, Lively Neely went to work at the DuPont power plant in Old Hickory, a section of residential Nashville, Tennessee. Each night, Mr. Neely brought home deadly asbestos dust to his wife, Ruby. Their son, Roger Neely filed a lawsuit against Dupont and twenty others that subcontracted at the plant over the years, alleging that the company’s failure to warn its employees of the danger of wearing work clothes home covered in asbestos, caused the  for death of Mrs. Neely.

“DuPont failed to provide any type of warnings or instructions about the safe use of asbestos,” said, the family’s attorney. “With regard to Mrs. Neely, they were allowing workers to go home with asbestos on their clothing, and didn’t provide change of clothing or showers to prevent that from happening.”

Ruby Neely, who recently passed away, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

According to the lawsuit, information about the dangers of asbestos had been available to the company as early as the 1930s, but they still weren’t informing insulators on the line of the hazards until the 1970s, when many workers had already died of asbestos-related illnesses.

Mr. Lively Neely cut, molded and fitted asbestos containing insulation and cement onto the various lines at DuPont. He also died of asbestos-related disease and had settled a lawsuit with the company in the 1980s.

The Tennessee Supreme Court decided on a similar case last year in which Amanda Satterfield sued Alcoa claiming she was terminally ill from the asbestos dust her father carried home from work. Though the case was initially dismissed, Tennessee’s highest court disagreed and sent the case back for trial.

On September 21, 2009 a Hamilton County, Tennessee jury returned a record $1.4 million dollar verdict against National Service Industries, doing business as North Brothers. The trial was believed to be only the second asbestos trial in the state of Tennessee over the past15 years. The verdict is believed to be the first asbestos verdict rendered against North Brothers in any state.

The case officially titled Marian H. Jackson, individually and as surviving spouse of Kenneth W. Jackson v. Breeding Insulation Company, Inc. et al., Hamilton County Circuit Court, Division 1, case no. 07C936 was tried over the course of seven days. The jury of twelve then deliberated for nearly two days before reaching its unanimous decision. All of the other defendants in the case except for North Brothers either settled with the plaintiff or else were dismissed prior to the trial.

Mr. Wayne Jackson worked as a pipefitter at Combustion Engineering in Chattanooga from 1952-1986. During that time he was continually exposed to asbestos-containing products, some of which were manufactured or sold by North Brothers.

The jury found that North Brothers sold defective products to Combustion Engineering that Mr. Jackson was exposed to North Brothers’ products, and that North Brothers’ products caused or contributed to Mr. Jackson’s development of mesothelioma (a rare form of cancer that is uniquely associated with asbestos exposure).