Thousands of former and current employees of the Bridgestone-Akron Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, and other Ohio rubber plants are at risk of developing mesothelioma and other forms of lung cancer as a result of continual asbestos exposure.
Asbestos was a popular building insulator for many years because of its flexible strength, and resistance to heat and corrosion. It is now known to cause malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and other serious pulmonary disorders. Asbestos filled Akron’s Firestone factory facilities.
As a result, former Firestone workers employed in the rubber manufacturing industry at any point may have an increased risk of developing mesothelioma and other forms of lung cancer. Unfortunately, even knowing workers faced a dire health hazard, many asbestos manufactures failed to warn employees of the known risks.
Joe Lyon is a highly-rated Ohio asbestos lawyer capable of representing former Firestone workers nationwide mesothelioma or other lung cancer asbestos claims.
Akron Firestone Products Contained Asbestos
The Akron Firestone Tire & Rubber Company is best known for producing automobile tires but it also manufactured a number of other products, including rubberized gaskets, containing asbestos. Asbestos gaskets were used to seal pipes, pumps, and equipment. Some rubber manufacturing plants used raw asbestos in mixtures to produce rubber sheets that were used for gaskets, seals and electrical insulations.
Regardless of their employment position in the last 40 years, most Firestone workers faced an occupational asbestos exposure. Production sites were built with asbestos bricks, drywall, and heating and water pipes. Firestone workers are therefore at serious risk of the numerous illnesses linked to asbestos exposure.
Akron Firestone Workers May Risk Lung Cancer
As early as the 1940s, medical professionals expressed concerns over the hazards of asbestos dust and asbestosis. For decades, these warnings were ignored by the asbestos industry, and today it is estimated that more than 20 million Americans are at risk of developing mesothelioma in their lifetime, primarily due to asbestos exposure at the workplace.
Even after the first case of mesothelioma was linked to asbestos exposure in 1964, many asbestos manufactures failed to warn Firestone workers and those workers still operated without warning of the serious health risks.
Asbestos fibers easily circulate through the air and thereby possibly inhaled and lodged in the tissue surrounding the lungs. This can lead to the development of deadly cancers, asbestosis and mesothelioma.
