Asbestos in Welding Blankets
Concerned that asbestos in welding blankets could cause asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma? Learn more about what mesothelioma lawyers can do for the victims of asbestos exposure.
What are welding blankets?
Welding blankets are designed to resist the intense heat and flames generated from welding work. Fibrous, heat and flame resistant, and cheap, asbestos was the obvious material choice for making welding blankets. Unfortunately, the very blankets designed to protect welders may have put them at high risk for many asbestos related diseases, including mesothelioma.
Asbestos is not necessarily dangerous while it’s intact. But any textile eventually becomes worn, ripped, or otherwise damaged. And friable, airborne asbestos can easily be inhaled. Once inside the lungs or stomach, asbestos fibers become embedded in the tissue, where they remain to wreak havoc on the organ lining. Eventually the tissue becomes irritated and scarred, leading first to shortness of breath and then possibly more serious complications such as asbestosis and in rare cases, malignant mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer that affects the lungs, stomach or heart.
Once the devastating effects of asbestos exposure became widely known in the 1970s, asbestos was phased out of most US products by about 1980. But contrary to logic and contrary belief, asbestos is not banned in the US. This means that many asbestos products can still be legally imported from countries such as China and India and sold in the United States. This included asbestos welding blankets. These new asbestos products are as dangerous to the end user as they are to the ship workers and merchant shippers who come into contact with them. Asbestos fibers adhere to the shipping containers and contaminate cargo ship holds creating more dangers for longshoremen and others at U.S. ports.
New welding blankets made from silica cloth are a safe alternative to asbestos cloth, and will not put you at risk of mesothelioma cancer and other diseases.
Call us at (800) 278-8675 to speak with a mesothelioma paralegal
Exposed to asbestos? Contact a mesothelioma lawyer today
If you had a job where you manufactured, installed, or simply used asbestos and have developed mesothelioma as a result, mesothelioma law is there to protect you. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or any other asbestos-related disease from workplace or home exposure to asbestos, contact an experienced mesothelioma lawyer immediately. Mesothelioma lawyers have helped thousands of mesothelioma patients win compensation for lost wages and medical costs. A qualified mesothelioma lawyer can help you get the compensation that you and your family need and deserve. Asbestos laws have become crucial assets in the fight against the willful negligence that exposed people to asbestos