Daughter Sues Over Mom’s Second-Hand Asbestos Death

October 30, 2006 - A woman in Sunderland County, England is suing a local shipyard, alleging that her mother’s death from mesothelioma was caused by her father’s long-time employment there.

Julie Watt has filed a claim against Appledore Shipyards of Dorset, England, claiming that the asbestos dust brought home on her father’s clothing years ago caused her mother to become sickened with the asbestos-related cancer.  Mrs. Alice Watts was 77 when she died of mesothelioma in September of 2004 after suffering for about a year.

Ms. Watt said that between 1952 and 1970, her father Robert Watt worked for the company's predecessors, Bartram and Sons Ltd, and regularly came home from work with asbestos-contaminated overalls and additional asbestos dust covering his hair and other body parts. He gave the overalls to his wife to shake out and wash, which released large amounts of asbestos dust into their home, which was stirred up into the air when she swept up dry asbestos, the writ says.

A report in Sunderland Today notes that Robert Watt worked as a shipwright.  His jobs included the stripping of old lagging, mixing of asbestos fiber, spraying of asbestos lagging, and sweeping of asbestos dust. 

The suit claims that the company “failed to warn employees of the dangers of working with asbestos, failed to act on expert advice about asbestos, allowed the dust to escape, allowed employees' clothes to become contaminated by asbestos dust, failed to provide washing or showering facilities, and failed to provide laundry facilities.”  The lack of proper facilities resulted in asbestos dust being brought into the homes of the employees.

Second-hand asbestos suits are becoming more and more common in the UK, a country whose mesothelioma rate is high and is expected to keep increasing for the next five to ten years.