Two UK dockworkers (what we would call longshoremen) one of whom died of mesothelioma and another suffering from asbestosis have won compensation claims against their own government for putting them in harm’s way. Under British law up to that point, they would have only had a case against the ship owners (the US analogs would be the Jones Act and the Death on the High Seas Act), most of which aren’t around any more. The men had to unload raw crocidolite and amosite asbestos fiber from South Africa. The fiber was packed in burlap sacks that leaked huge amounts of fiber into the air, which would have been especially deadly when the ambient air was in the confined hold of a ship (If you want to see how ships were unloaded before all cargo was containerized, just see the 1955 movie “On the Waterfront” with Marlon Brando). Cases have brought on this basis in the US against the shipping lines, but never against Uncle Sam.
Tags: mesothelioma
