Asbestos Is A Health Hazard
Brian O Sutter
Premises Liability
One of the great things about the American landscape is that for people looking for good value, there are wealth of older structures all over the country that just need a little bit of time and attention in order to be restored into something that may be beautiful, useful, historical or in some cases, all three. Plenty of Americans take advantage of the numerous existing, older properties around the country to acquire a new home, or a new workplace, or other facility.However, for all the positives of buying older buildings like historical value, or in some cases, simply lower prices to save on money, there are negatives to consider as well. One of these is that, depending on the age of the building, there may be one, or several aspects of the structure that are not compliant with modern building code and regulations. Asbestos is one big red flag for all states in the USA now, despite the fact that for decades, it was used to help prevent buildings from burning down.
Long Term Effects
Asbestos is a fiber-like material refined from six different minerals. Structurally, it presents many advantages; it’s fire proof, and it doesn’t conduct electricity. This makes it the perfect material for lining walls to help control fires in a structure, as well as to sheathe or protect electrical wiring, since it will neither burn from a short circuit, nor conduct a current out of an exposed wire.
However, medical science eventually realized that asbestos, when exposed to humans over a sufficiently long periods of time, usually years or decades, could also cause cancer. Breathing in asbestos fibers can, with enough time, impact breathing as the lungs become inflamed and scarred. In other words, science eventually realized that many workplaces and homes using asbestos in their structures had the potential to make residents and employees sick, possibly even fatally so. Use of the material in construction was banned in 1989. However, even though the substance was now illegal, that did not mean that existing structures that still contained asbestos had to be torn down.
Safety At Work & Home
That’s why it’s now critical that when people decide to purchase an older building, an inspection should be conducted to see if asbestos is still in use within the structure, if this not known by the current owners. Drastic renovating that doesn’t take the presence of asbestos into account can release asbestos particles into the air that pose a massive health risk to anyone in the area. If you own a building and you are planning on performing renovations to it, and have never done so before, you have a legal responsibility to ensure that the people hired to do the work are safe. If you’ve already been in business for many years, but have finally decided now is the time for a major renovation, and you uncover asbestos in the building and choose to do nothing about it, you are endangering your customers as well as the people contracted to do the work.
The same is true for older homes. Having asbestos in a home and failing to disclose this when work is done on home improvement leaves you legally responsible should people develop an illness that is later diagnosed as caused by exposure to asbestos. If you yourself have not been feeling well, go to a doctor and are told afterwards that you are exhibiting all the symptoms of someone suffering from regular exposure to asbestos, someone else has been negligent in their legal responsibility to ensure your safety. Get a personal injury lawyer and ask about your options for a premises liability case.