$30M Mesothelioma Verdict Awarded in Case Against Bridgestone
Legislation & LitigationWritten by Travis Rodgers | Edited By Amy Edel
An Illinois jury has awarded $30 million in a mesothelioma case against tiremaker Bridgestone Firestone. Thomas Jackson was exposed to asbestos inadvertently brought home from his father’s job at one of the company’s tire manufacturing plants. Jackson died just five weeks after his mesothelioma diagnosis at 64 years old.
Attorneys for Jackson’s wife, Dorothy Jackson, successfully linked his peritoneal mesothelioma to asbestos fibers on his father’s work clothes. Nearly 100 pieces of evidence were used in the nine day trial tying Jackson’s secondary asbestos exposure to his father’s job, which began in 1965.
Jackson’s father was a manager at the Decatur Illinois plant. Asbestos-contaminated talcum powder was used at the facility to prevent tires and other rubber materials from sticking together. The talc used at the plant was mined in Vermont and New York.
“For years this Firestone facility allowed hardworking men to go home to their families covered in raw asbestos materials, endangering the next generation and, in Mr. Jackson’s case, causing a sudden and painful death,” said Benjamin Braly, a Dean Omar Branham Shirley partner who was one of the attorneys for the plaintiff in the wrongful death lawsuit.
Dangers of Asbestos & Secondary Exposure
Asbestos can contaminate talcum powder during the mining process. Both minerals are found next to each other in the ground.
Once ingested or inhaled, asbestos fibers can become trapped inside of the body. Decades later those fibers cause inflammation, scarring and cancer. Repeated and long-term exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. Asbestos is the primary cause of mesothelioma. Most asbestos exposure is occupational and factory jobs involving asbestos products were particularly high-risk. Bringing home work clothing, boots and tools with asbestos fibers on them also put workers’ families at risk of secondary asbestos exposure.