North Carolina Products Containing Asbestos

Despite its dangers, manufacturers used asbestos in numerous applications for decades during the 20th century. As a result, many North Carolina citizens have received potentially life-threatening exposure to asbestos in dangerous products for years.

If you’ve developed a severe health condition caused by the use of or exposure to products containing asbestos, you may have the right to recover compensation for your medical expenses, long-term care, lost earning potential, pain, suffering, and other losses.

Contact Ward Black Law for a free initial case review to discuss your options for pursuing the financial relief you need and deserve.

Why Products Containing Asbestos Are Hazardous

For most of the 20th century, manufacturers incorporated asbestos into numerous construction materials, automotive and airplane parts, and consumer products. As a result, many people were exposed to asbestos for decades. Asbestos still lurks in many buildings and products, exposing people unknowingly to this deadly material.

Asbestos-containing products constitute a serious health hazard. Tiny asbestos fibers and particles can break off and float in the air until being inhaled or ingested. Once in a person’s body, asbestos fibers can get lodged in various tissue and cause irritation, inflammation, and permanent damage that leads to severe chronic health problems like asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer.

Why Was Asbestos Used in Products and Materials?

Manufacturers once considered asbestos a “wonder material” because of the numerous beneficial properties it provided to products that incorporated it. Asbestos-containing products act as excellent insulators, and asbestos was often incorporated into insulation materials and automotive and machinery parts exposed to high heat.

Asbestos-containing materials also resist damage or staining by chemicals. Asbestos can also add durability, strength, or flexibility to products and materials.

Manufacturers of high temperature products such as insulation in the U.S. primarily used asbestos in products from the 1930s through the 1970s, after which the dangers of asbestos became more widely known to the general public. However, some products, including those involved in high-heat applications like engines, still contain small amounts of asbestos to this day.

Asbestos-Containing Building Products

Construction companies have relied on asbestos-containing building materials for decades due to the excellent insulation that asbestos products provide. Construction workers and others frequently handled asbestos-containing products. Examples of building materials that contained asbestos include:

• Asbestos insulation containing vermiculite
• Asbestos Blankets or “A-Cloth”
• Asbestos cement
• Vinyl floor tiles and floor backing sheets or adhesives
• Ceiling tiles
• Cement pipes and other asbestos pipes
• Roofing shingles and siding
• Textured paints
• Electrical products including wires, breakers, panels, and arc chutes
• Asbestos cement sheets
• Patching compounds for walls and ceilings
• Wall and flooring materials used around wood-burning stoves
• Hot water and steam pipes, insulation, and pipe covers
• Oil and coal furnaces
• Electrical panels
• Construction tape
• Ductwork
• Drywall
• Joint compound
• Gaskets
• Packing 

Asbestos-Containing Consumer Goods

Many consumer products manufactured throughout the 20th century used asbestos or asbestos-containing materials. Common examples of consumer products that used asbestos include:

• Beverage filters
• Cigarette filters
• Heat-resistant gloves, such as oven mitts
• Laboratory equipment, including countertops and hoods
• Molds used to manufacture plastic products
• Fireproofing materials and heat-resistant fabrics, such as fire blankets, firefighter outfits, and racing suits
• Hair-styling appliances, such as hair dryers, straightening irons, and curlers
• Household appliances, including stoves, ovens, toasters, coffee pots, dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers

Personal Care Products Containing Asbestos

Many manufacturers also incorporated asbestos into various personal care products, including talc-based cosmetics. Many personal care products contained asbestos because manufacturers used talc in making the product. Because talc and asbestos deposits can form near each other, manufacturers frequently received asbestos-contaminated talc.

Many brands of cosmetics, talcum, and baby powder contained detectable amounts of asbestos. Some cosmetic products also used talcum powder to help the product feel smooth and absorb moisture from the skin. Asbestos contamination in cosmetics and talcum powder has been linked to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.

Transportation and Automotive Products Containing Asbestos

The automotive industry, aeronautics industry, and shipbuilding industry made extensive use of asbestos products. Due to asbestos’s ideal insulation properties, parts manufacturers incorporated asbestos into automotive, aeronautic, and marine parts typically exposed to high heat. However, when repair shops repair or refinish these products, the work could generate asbestos-containing dust that could expose or put customers, mechanics, and mechanics’ families at risk of exposure.

Common examples of transportation and automotive products that contained asbestos include:

• Brake pads
• Brake shoes
• Brake linings
• Clutch linings
• Asbestos gaskets
• Heat seals
• Heat shields
• Mufflers
• Spark plugs
• Engine hoses
• Body putties
• Paint undercoating
• Transmission plates
• Vehicle body insulation
• Brake drums
• Jet engine parts

Building a Strong Asbestos Exposure Claim in North Carolina

The extensive use of asbestos in numerous industrial and consumer applications has resulted in thousands of legal claims in North Carolina and across the country filed by people who have suffered asbestos-related diseases due to asbestos exposure. As a result, many asbestos manufacturers have ended up in bankruptcy due to the financial liabilities of asbestos claims, but compensation is still available from more than 50 asbestos manufacturers that declared bankruptcy.

Today, victims of asbestos exposure may have multiple options for recovering the compensation they need to treat their condition and make up for the lost income and pain and suffering they’ve experienced from developing asbestos-related diseases.

First, people who suffered asbestos exposure at work may have the right to seek financial benefits through workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ compensation provides benefits to employees who develop illnesses due to exposures at work.

People who have developed illnesses due to asbestos exposure can also file a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the products responsible for their exposure. Because many asbestos manufacturers have undergone numerous mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs over the decades, asbestos lawsuits may involve dozens of potentially liable parties.

In addition, when asbestos manufacturers went bankrupt, they often set up bankruptcy trusts funded by their insurance money. People harmed by the manufacturers’ products can file claims with the trusts to receive compensation.

Because you may have the right to pursue all these avenues for compensation, turn to an experienced asbestos attorney at Ward Black Law to evaluate your legal options.