When Workers' Comp Is Inadequate
Posted on: 12 December 2017
For work-related injuries, your employer's workers' comp insurance is usually the first thing you turn to when it comes to covering your medical bills and part of your salary when recuperating at home. In most cases, this form of coverage works fine. Sometimes, however, you may find yourself the victim of an injury that requires greater care when handling. Read on to learn more information about a specific injury where workers' comp may fall short.
Toxic Exposure
When you consider workplace injuries, you may think about sudden accidents first and foremost. There's another kind of accident, however, that doesn't show up suddenly. Some workplaces are prime spots for toxic exposure injuries, and often the damage takes time to become apparent to the victims. If you have worked around dangerous and toxic substances like arsenic, radium, and asbestos, you may find yourself seriously ill before you know it. Asbestos is a particularly sneaky and debilitating chemical, and has damaged the lungs of thousands of workers.
Asbestos Use in the United States
You may have heard about asbestos, but the full impact to those who suffered from years of exposure is devastating. Asbestos is considered dangerous, but casual contact is not known to be harmful. Some industries, however, use asbestos extensively, and for good reasons.
Asbestos has amazing abilities; it's heat and cold resistant, it's fireproof, it has superior insulating ability and you can find it in use in a wide variety of construction and manufacturing industries. You should also know a shocking fact: asbestos has not been banned in the United States, so it is still being used right at this moment.
Class Action Lawsuits
If you were exposed to asbestos in the course of your job, you may begin to notice problems with your breathing years and years after the initial exposure. Asbestos can shed tiny fibers that are inhaled and become lodged in the lungs. The body attempts to fight off this invading foreign body by building scar tissue around the fibers, which eventually interferes with the ability to breath in and out.
Fortunately, the devastating effects of this harmful workplace substance has been recognized due to the large number of victims coming forward. So many workers, in fact, that a class action lawsuit was filed and has resulted in the largest compensation trust fund ever being set aside for the victims. This illness has no cure, and money may not make the pain and misery go away, but you are entitled to be compensated for your harm and a workers' comp claim is woefully inadequate to address that need. Speak to a personal injury attorney and take steps to get your share of the $30 billion dollars available for victims.
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