Wife diagnosed with mesothelioma after washing her husband’s clothes

We are seeing more secondary asbestos exposure claims and generally these occur when asbestos contaminated clothing is brought home. The clothing is then laundered after shaking off the asbestos dust, causing asbestos exposure. This was common in the 1950s and 1960s when fewer people had washing machines and washing was often done by hand.

This was sadly the case for Mrs P, who was not exposed to asbestos during her own employment. Based on this and further investigations, it was sadly concluded that Mrs P was exposed when washing her husband’s clothes, when he worked at Liverpool Docks.

Mr P worked at Liverpool Docks from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, as a stevedore, loading and unloading goods. Some of the cargo ships that came into Liverpool Docks arrived from South Africa and Canada and contained sacks of asbestos. Asbestos exposure was confirmed by two other witnesses who worked with Mr P at Liverpool Docks in the 1960’s.

He was never given a mask or any warnings about the dangers of asbestos.

A formal letter of claim was sent to the defendant company who were still trading and their insurers. They responded by arguing that the level of asbestos exposure was insufficient to be culpable. This was not a sustainable argument, so court proceedings were issued.

There is a specialist division of the High Court in London which has been set up to deal with mesothelioma claims specifically. Generally, as soon as a defence is received there is a short hearing to review the evidence and decide whether judgment should be entered against the defendants. This was precisely what happened within a month of the issue of proceedings.

The claimant then put forward a witness statement to prove the loss that he and his wife had sustained as a result of his mesothelioma illness. These losses were all disputed by the defendant.

They recalled that asbestos arrived in hessian bags, that were frail and ripped easily. Their job was to hook them so that they could be hauled out of the hold. The asbestos was often stored in the hold over copper, which would rip the bags. As the bags were lifted out of the hold, a tremendous amount of dust fell out on the dock workers. They recalled being constantly covered in it whilst they worked. It covered their face, hair and clothes. This is how Mr P brought asbestos into his home, which caused Mrs P to be exposed.

Mr P used to keep the same clothes throughout the working week, which was very common at this time. Mrs P then used to launder his clothes. She used to take them into the yard and shake the dust off them and then hand-washed everything in the sink. Some days Mr P came home covered in what looked like white flour. Mrs P knew that he unloaded a lot of different types of materials and that he would have worked with asbestos.

Our team of expert lawyers were able to identify how Mrs P was exposed to asbestos and brought a successful claim on her behalf.

If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma and are unsure how, it may be that you have suffered from secondary asbestos exposure, even from washing clothes.