[breadcrumb]
How Can a Delivery Service Worker Get Mesothelioma by Occupational Exposure to Asbestos?
Although many people may not equate delivery service workers with asbestos exposure, this connection has been well-founded. Rhode Island lists delivery service workers as one of the deadliest jobs associated with asbestos. Delivery service workers may have picked up and delivered materials that contained asbestos, which could have put them at risk for developing mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases.
Delivery workers pick up, transport and drop off packages and shipments within a local or national region. They drive large commercial trucks and transport merchandise from distribution centers to businesses and households.
Delivery service workers may have picked up cargo that included consumer and commercial goods that contained asbestos. They often had to load the cargo on trucks and inspect the delivery to ensure that they had the correct order and quantity. They may have also been responsible for checking the products for any obvious defects. They then dropped off these materials at their destination. While loading, inspecting or unloading the cargo, these workers may have been exposed to asbestos fibers, which they could have inhaled and ultimately caused mesothelioma.
Even if workers did not work directly with asbestos products, they may have walked through work areas where asbestos was exposed where they could have breathed in the dangerous fibers.
Locations in the United States for the Highest Employment Rates for Delivery Service Workers
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently 1,449,100 people employed in the delivery truck drivers and driver/sales worker classification. States with the highest employment rates for delivery service drivers include:
- California
- Texas
- Florida
- Illinois
- New York
Similar Occupations as Delivery Service Workers
Similar occupations as delivery service workers include:
- Bus drivers
- Hand laborers and material movers
- Heavy and tractor trailer truck drivers
- Material recording clerks
- Postal service workers
- Railroad workers
- Taxi drivers, ride-hailing drivers and chauffeurs
- Water transportation workers
Lawsuits and Settlements Involving Delivery Service Workers and Mesothelioma
There have been a few notable cases involving delivery service workers and truck drivers related to asbestos exposure. An Ohio truck driver who delivered pipes about ten times a year and his family received a judgment of $5 million. The pipes contained crocidolite fibers, a particularly dangerous type of asbestos. He was not given any warnings regarding these pipes and inhaled asbestos fibers as part of his job. The verdict was overturned, but the California Supreme Court reinstated the verdict.
A man from Utica, New York received settlements in the amount of $2.1 million after being exposed to asbestos-containing granular plastic molding compound for 14 years as a local truck driver. He picked up and dropped off 50-pound bags of the materials to General Electric. Sometimes the bags would slit open and the materials would become loose during delivery. The man also swept out the trailer after unloading the materials. He developed mesothelioma in 2008 at the age of 76 due to the asbestos exposure.
A Los Angeles jury delivered a verdict of $4.055 million to a former truck driver who worked in this role from 1971 to 1980s. There, he was exposed to asbestos when he delivered used brake shoes to and from a Sears, Roebuck & Co. facility. He was later diagnosed with mesothelioma.
Studies Related to Delivery Service Workers and Asbestos
A few studies have explored the connection between delivery drivers and asbestos. “Asbestosis in a truck driver: a clinical case and analysis of the exposure” was a 1991 Italian study that explored how a truck driver with no known previous exposure to asbestos could have developed asbestosis. The researchers concluded that in at least six widely used truck models of which three were driven by the worker from 1958 to 1984, a manifold found on the bottom or side of the engine contained asbestos. In these models, the engine was inside the driver’s cab and covered by a cowling set on the floor. Researchers opined that asbestos fibers could enter the driver’s cab through a small window in the cowling or the dashboard’s outlets, which the truck driver could have breathed in.
In “Case-Control Study of Lung Cancer and Truck Driving in the Teamsters Union,” researchers studied 996 cases and 1,085 controls of truck drivers who died in 1982 and 1983 and found that diesel truck drivers have an excess risk of developing lung cancer, compared to other teamsters in jobs outside the trucking industry. One of the factors considered during the study was the drivers’ exposure to asbestos.
Types of Asbestos Products Used by Delivery Service Workers
Delivery service workers could have been exposed to virtually any asbestos product as they transported them from one destination to another.
Manufacturers of Asbestos Products Used by Delivery Service Workers
Some of the largest manufacturers of asbestos products include:
- 3M
- Advance Auto Parts, Inc.
- American Standard, Inc.
- Anchor Packaging Co.
- Armstrong International, Inc.
- Bath Iron Works
- CertainTeed Corporation
- Duro Dyne Corporation
- Foster Wheeler Corporation
- Georgia Pacific Corporation
- International Paper Company
- John Crane Company
- John Deere Industrial Equipment Company
- National Automotive Parts Association
- Owens-Illinois, Inc.
- Westinghouse Electric Corporation
