FREE Mesothelioma Info Packet and DVD!

First Name:

Last Name:

Phone:

Email:

Have you or a loved one been diagnosed or have:

Mesothelioma?
Yes  No

Comment / Info Request:

form-spacer

Maintenance Workers

Maintenance workers, including plumbers, carpenters and builders, account for more than one quarter of the 3,500 asbestos-related cancer deaths each year. Maintenance workers, who worked in mills, chemical plants, boiler rooms and in or around industrial shops prior to the 1980s are at high risk of developing asbestos related diseases. Cleaning up asbestos is the extreme dangerous activity as there is a possibility for the material to be disturbed and its particles to be airborne. Inhalation of these particles may result in incurable diseases such as mesothelioma.

Still there are many sites containing asbestos. In 1998, a group of men who worked for the Architect of the Capitol found out that the tunnels they were working in were full of asbestos. Architect of the Capitol is the government agency responsible to the United States Congress for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol Complex, which includes the Capitol, the congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress buildings, the Supreme Court building, the U.S. Botanic Garden, the Capitol Power Plant, and other facilities. Some workers requested for a cleanup, however, they were harassed by their employer and no cleanup took place. They filed a whistle-blower complaint about their pathetic working atmosphere in October 2006.

There are millions of maintenance workers in the US, many of whom don’t realize that asbestos could be present at their work sites and therefore putting themselves at health risk. Current mesothelioma deaths are due to asbestos exposure that happened many decades back. Therefore, we should make present workers aware of the fact that they are at risk.

Here are some key points that maintenance workers have to take care of:

  • Ask if asbestos is present at the work area before starting job
  • Check if the work does not require a license
  • Adopt all the safety precautions while handling asbestos: wear an appropriate mask, vacuum up any dust with a special Class H vacuum cleaner and do not drill or cut into asbestos with power tools