Mississippi railroad workers worked with equipment built to withstand extreme heat and pressure. To determine potential asbestos exposure, a Mississippi railroad worker’s mesothelioma lawyer investigates the nature of past repair work on trains.
Brake systems, insulation, and other components in various pieces of equipment may have contained asbestos in the past. Maintenance and repair workers who serviced these items may have come into contact with those parts from time to time. A Mississippi mesothelioma lawyer at Wallace & Graham, P.A., can investigate whether railroad employment may be linked to asbestos exposure that occurred decades earlier.

Our firm has extensive experience in asbestos litigation throughout the United States, and the attorneys have almost 40 years of combined experience in representing mesothelioma victims.
To assess exposure, our attorneys may examine employee job descriptions, maintenance responsibilities, and old equipment records from railcar and locomotive repair.
Rail lines have long been used in Mississippi to transport goods from inland factories and mills to Gulf Coast seaports, such as the Port of Gulfport and the Port of Pascagoula. Freight railroads have historically transported timber, agricultural products, and industrial materials throughout the state and into shipping terminals located on the Gulf Coast.
Railroad workers tasked with maintaining and cleaning locomotives, repairing railcars, and servicing mechanical equipment sometimes did so in railroad yards and maintenance shops where older equipment was serviced and where insulated piping and components were repaired or replaced.
Mesothelioma is a rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure that can develop many years after an initial exposure to asbestos fibers. A total of 2,669 malignant mesothelioma cases were reported in the United States in 2022, according to the CDC’s U.S. Cancer Statistics.
Global public health agencies also estimate that occupational asbestos exposure is responsible for over 200,000 deaths. Since railroad maintenance has historically included insulated engines, braking systems, and other mechanical equipment, some railroad workers who are later diagnosed with mesothelioma investigate whether their earlier work environments included asbestos materials.
In Mississippi, a person has three years to file a personal injury claim, pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49. In mesothelioma cases, the courts generally apply a discovery rule, as diseases like mesothelioma may not manifest for decades after exposure to asbestos.
Therefore, the filing period would typically start when the person was diagnosed with the illness or should have reasonably discovered the link between the disease and asbestos exposure, rather than at the time of exposure itself.
Mississippi railroads facilitated the transport of freight and the repair of equipment and locomotives for many years. Employees in those positions may have worked with parts that were built to be durable and heat-resistant.
Determining asbestos exposure in those jobs frequently means looking closely at what workers did and the machinery they worked on. For those who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, knowing their occupational history may be a positive first step. Contact us today to hire a railroad worker’s mesothelioma lawyer.