Heating Ducts
Most large, institutions and commercial buildings use heating units with accompanying heating ducts to regulate the temperature of spaces where adults and children work, learn and play. Were it not for the ingenuity of design in efficient heating ducts, engineers and property owners wouldn't be able to keep workers, families, and children comfortable for an affordable price. Heating ducts are narrow pipe-like corridors that conduct hot, cool or filtered air to and from the inhabited rooms in these buildings. The efficiency and effectiveness of the materials used in these heating ducts - both conducting and insulation materials - are a part of this ingenuity and ability to provide temperature comfort at a reasonable rate.
Allow many of the materials used to construct heating ducts work well to creating an effective duct, the efficiency of certain materials used to insulate heating ducts comes at a significant price: you health. Asbestos is one of these materials. Since the development of heating ducts long ago, scientists and engineers have labored to find new and ever more effective solutions for delivering comfortable air throughout buildings via heating ducts. In the earlier part of the 20th century, the material in mode for this purpose was asbestos. Yes, in the decades leading up to the 1970s, asbestos was the number one choice of heating duct manufacturers for heat insulation. Why? Asbestos is an extremely poor conductor of heat and is highly flame resistant, which made it the seemingly ideal choice for heating duct insulation. It was cheap, readily available, and it worked wonders. But while manufacturers and distributors of asbestos heating ducts were expounding upon the manifold uses of asbestos, "the perfect material," the public was about to be dealt a serious blow, one from which many innocent victims would not recover.
In the 1970s, information leaked to the press and media that exposure to asbestos was dangerous. Scientific and anecdotal evidence over the course of the last decade or so had shown conclusively that asbestos could be linked with a number of serious illnesses, including lung cancer, heart disease, asbestosis, and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lung lining and respiratory tract. By this time, thousands of workers and consumers had already succumbed to the devastating effects of these diseases, and many more individuals who had been exposed to asbestos in heating ducts and elsewhere were developing mesothelioma and lung cancer at an astounding rate. Angry consumer groups, workers unions, and individuals began to raise a mount of civil and legal claims against the manufacturers of asbestos-containing heating ducts and other insulation products. Time after time, claim after claim, these victims of the asbestos industry met with legal success, and as their illnesses worsened, the negligence of the asbestos-product manufacturers grew ever and ever more evident. Why didn't the manufacturers of heating ducts warn the public?
Today, scientists and researchers estimate that over ten thousand Americans die each year as the result of their exposure to asbestos. Many of these victims to mesothelioma and lung cancer were exposed during their daily routine, as workers in the heating and HVAC or construction industry. Some of these victims were innocent children at the time of their exposure and only began to present symptoms of mesothelioma long after they were exposed to asbestos in their early school years. If you have ever -- as a child or adult -- spent time working, learning, or living near heating ducts that contained asbestos, please contact an asbestos lawyer, one who is familiar with asbestos-related claims. Call an attorney today and secure justice for yourself and your family
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