There is reason to believe that retired brewery workers have experienced high levels of airborne asbestos exposure during their working years.
Because asbestos was a widely used insulator and fireproofing agent prior to the 1980s, workers in a variety of industries, including the manufacturing and packaging of beer from breweries like Dixie Brewing Company in Louisiana, are likely to have been exposed to unsafe amounts of asbestos while on the job.
Within the brewery itself, asbestos would have been applied to high-heat components, like the industrial-sized boilers that commercial beer manufacturing requires.
Additionally, the machines involved in bottling, labeling, and packaging beer before better regulations helped clean up worksites in the late 1970s and 1980s posed their own risk of fire.
Lawsuit Compensation And Benefits For Workers Of Dixie Brewing Company Who Have Been Diagnosed With Or Died From Mesothelioma
It was also common for work sites to feature safety clothing and equipment, furniture, and various facility components that were made from or with asbestos.
Exposure to asbestos in industrial workplaces like Dixie Brewing was common, and the health effects of the choices that companies made decades ago continue to haunt their workers.
The problem with using asbestos so widely is that when it breaks, is damaged, or simply degrades over time, components that feature the mineral emit small clouds of miniscule fibers into the air.
Nearby workers breathe these in, and the rigid particles that make up asbestos can become stuck in the lungs.
One-time exposure probably won’t negatively impact your health, but over the course of years in a setting like Dixie Brewing Company in Louisiana, workers likely experienced a chronic exposure of varying amounts.
For many, this will eventually lead to the development of mesothelioma years or decades later.
If you worked for Dixie Brewing Company in Louisiana and have developed mesothelioma, you may have rights to compensation for your injuries. The Gertler Law Firm can protect your rights and help you look out for your family for the long term. Call us today at (504) 527-8767 for a free consultation with an experienced Louisiana mesothelioma attorney.
