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How a Health and Safety Engineer Can Get Mesothelioma by Occupational Exposure to Asbestos
Health and safety engineers design systems and develop procedures to prevent workplace injuries and illness. They may work with machinery, chemicals, furniture, software and other products.
Some health and safety engineers work in specific roles, such as fire prevention and protection. These workers assess the potential hazards of materials, buildings and transportation systems and design systems to help prevent fires in the workplace. Product safety engineers conduct tests on various products and make sure they are safe to use. Systems safety engineers identify and analyze hazards with the designs of systems. Some health and safety engineers worked in the mining field where asbestos may have occurred naturally.
Health and safety engineers may have come into contact with elements in buildings and machinery that used asbestos, such as insulation that wrapped around boilers and machinery.
Common job duties of health and safety engineers include the following:
- Review plans and specifications for machinery and equipment to adhere to safety requirements
- Identify potential hazards by inspecting facilities, machinery and safety equipment
- Correct hazards
- Evaluate the effectiveness of industrial control mechanisms
- Investigate industrial accidents and injuries to determine underlying causes and how they could have been avoided
- Ensure buildings or products comply with health and safety regulations
- Review employee safety programs and recommend ways to improve them
- Evaluate the corrections that were made after new systems were implemented
Locations in the United States with the Highest Employment Rates for Health and Safety Engineers
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently 27,000 health and safety engineers employed in the United States. States with the highest employment rates for health and safety engineers are:
- Texas
- California
- New York
- Georgia
- Pennsylvania
Similar Occupations as Health and Safety Engineers
Some occupations that are similar to health and safety engineers but may have some different job duties and different potential risks of asbestos exposure include:
- Construction and building inspectors
- Fire inspectors
- Industrial engineers
- Mining and geological engineers
- Occupational health and safety specialists and technicians
Lawsuits and Settlements Involving Engineers and Mesothelioma
There are some cases that have been brought by engineers who have developed mesothelioma. For example, an engineer with Bristol Water who worked for the company from the 1950s until 1992 was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2010. His wife sued after he died from the disease a year later. While he worked at Bristol Water, he repaired and maintained pumping stations where asbestos cement insulation was used. The jury awarded his spouse more than $450,000.
Health and safety engineers who have developed mesothelioma or other occupational diseases due to asbestos exposure may have a variety of options for pursuing compensation. They may be able to file a workers’ compensation claim to cover medical expenses and partial wage replacement. If they were exposed to asbestos from a product made by a manufacturer who has set up an asbestos trust fund, they can make a claim with the fund. They may also consider filing a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturers of asbestos-containing products they came in contact with.
Studies Related to Health and Safety Engineers and Asbestos
There have been a few studies that have evaluated the relationship between engineers and asbestos exposure. For example, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health conducted a study in which researched reviewed death certificates from nearly 5 million people from 28 states between 1979 and 1990. They found that workers in fields with high occupational asbestos exposure such as mechanical and electrical engineers had an increased risk for gastrointestinal cancer.
Types of Asbestos Products Used by Health and Safety Engineers
Health and safety engineers may have come in contact with a variety of asbestos-containing products when inspecting the building. Many construction products like cement sheets and boards, wall insulation and pipe wrapping contained asbestos. Additionally, asbestos cement pipes were used as boundary wall, rainwater and ventilating pipes.
Health and safety engineers may have also come into contact with electrical products that contained asbestos, such as switch gear, flash strips, separators and rope gasket door seals. Reactors were surrounded by asbestos-containing insulation. Other asbestos-containing materials that health and safety engineers may have come into contact with include:
- Pipes
- Boilers
- Ducts
- Tanks
- Cement
- Welding rods
- Pipe block insulation
- Joint compounds
- Valves
- Gaskets
- Pipe coating
- Packing
Manufacturers of Asbestos Products Used by Health and Safety Engineers
Some of the manufacturers who made asbestos products that health and safety engineers used or may have come in contact with include:
- ABB Ltd.
- Celotex Corp.
- CertainTeed Products Corp.
- Combustion Engineering
- Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc.
- Fibreboard Corp.
- GAF Corp.
- Carlock Inc.
- John Crane
- Johns Manville
- Kaiser Gypsum Co. Keene Corp.
- Kentile Floors
- Owens-Illinois Co.
- Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp.
- Pacor, Inc.
- Pittsburgh Corning Corp.
- The Flintkote Company
- Union Carbide
- Weil-McLain
