North Carolina Personal Injury Blog

If you love to garden, you may be familiar with the weed killer, Roundup. Recently, this weed killer has been in the news, because people are asserting that it has caused them to develop cancer. The total number of people claiming this has reached over 18,000, putting the German company Bayer in a difficult position.

Glyphosate, an ingredient in Roundup, is a controversial chemical. It's believed to cause harm to humans and to the environment. In July 2019, around 18,400 plaintiffs had filed claims in connection to glyphosate, according to Bayer. That's up from 13,400 in April.

Asbestos, a naturally-occurring mineral, has been used in hundreds of products, ranging from brake pads to building insulation in Navy ships. Asbestos has uses for both fireproofing items and insulating. However, medical professionals have suspected that asbestos caused disease and cancer since the beginning of the twentieth century.

The dangers of asbestos have been public knowledge for many decades since the mineral got linked to mesothelioma in the 1970s, which has resulted in increased government control of asbestos used in consumer and industrial products, as well as increased workplace safety requirements for workers who handle, mine or process asbestos or products with asbestos in them.

Nothing leads to mesothelioma more often than asbestos exposure. Though it does happen occasionally in children and young people who do not have an easily documented history of exposure, most people who get the disease are older and have faced a high level of exposure in their lives. It usually takes decades -- 20 to 50 years -- for the cancer to develop after a person gets exposed.

With this in mind, if you are getting exposed to asbestos regularly -- maybe you find out that it's in the water supply or in the dust that you breathe in at work -- the best thing to do is to end that exposure immediately. Do not take any chances. Mesothelioma has a high fatality rate, and you must stop the exposure to asbestos as soon as you can.

Working in environments such as factories and construction sites usually involves exposure to many different chemicals. All employers have the legal obligation to protect their employees from exposure to known hazards. Therefore, you should have been provided with adequate protective equipment and safety training to prevent exposure that could damage your health.

However, unfortunately, workers across the United States continue to suffer from serious illnesses such as cancer because of long-term exposure to toxins in the workplace. This can be due to exposure to toxins that were not known to be dangerous at the time, or it could be due to negligent employers who did not do enough to keep the workplace safe. If you have worked with polyvinyl chloride in the past and you are currently suffering from health issues, it is important that you understand how polyvinyl chloride exposure could have negatively affected your health.