Asbestos in Maryland

About Maryland

The state, which has a border along the Atlantic Ocean, is also home to a handful of shipyards, some of which have known issues with asbestos exposure. And Baltimore, Maryland, thanks in large part to its role as a thriving shipyard and steel mill city during and after World War II, saw many of its residents work for power plants, chemical plants and construction companies performing labor jobs that posed a high risk for asbestos exposure.

In addition, Maryland courts are considered favorable to plaintiffs in civil actions. Although state lawmakers created an inactive docket for asbestos cases in which plaintiffs do not have enough merit to file a claim, the process is streamlined to help valid cases move through the court system.

In September 2021, a Maryland appeals court overturned a ruling in favor of a manufacturer of asbestos-contaminated powdered chalk. The appeals court believed the trial judge erred in restricting evidence collected from decades-old containers of the powdered chalk purchased on eBay that contained amphibole asbestos. The plaintiffs also submitted a container of the chalk used by their father found in his garage after he died of mesothelioma, which was also contaminated with amphibole asbestos.

Occupations at Risk

Shipyard employees, construction workers, steel mill workers, foundry workers and sheet metal workers are among the occupations at risk for asbestos exposure in Maryland. In 1983, Maryland was the first state in the country to pass requirements for abatement contractors or demolition contractors involving asbestos. Training and licensing are part of the standards, which lawmakers have not updated significantly since 1990.

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Maryland Shipyards and Asbestos

Shipyards are part of the state fabric of Maryland, but they, unfortunately, posed a serious risk of asbestos exposure to workers. Contractors who supplied parts to the U.S. Navy and built vessels used asbestos materials during the World War II era. Boilers and pipes were wrapped with asbestos lagging or covered in asbestos-containing paint to minimize heat. Almost all the insulation on a ship contained asbestos. The Curtis Bay Coast Guard Yard and Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock are two yards that exposed workers to asbestos.

At the Curtis Bay yard, asbestos was confirmed in Fleet Hall, a barracks that was constructed with asbestos shingles on its roof. The yard’s salvage lot was an active scrap metal yard since the 1940s and was also used for dumping asbestos debris.

In addition, a burn pit near the salvage lot was active from the late 1940s through 1963, and that’s where used batteries, oil, scrap metal, liquids and asbestos-containing materials were disposed of or incinerated. Areas around both sites were used as dumping grounds, and officials fear asbestos materials were disposed of there as well.

The Curtis Bay Coast Guard Yard was designated a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2008, although asbestos was a minor part of that designation.

At Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock, workers who used asbestos-containing parts from Garlock later won lawsuits against the company after they developed asbestos-related illnesses. One plaintiff was Paul J. Wilson, an electrician whose work history included stints at Bethlehem Steel’s Key Highway Shipyard and Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock.

Maryland Schools and Asbestos

Schools across the country were built with asbestos construction materials such as pipe insulation, floor tiles, glue and drop ceilings. These materials have to be monitored and inspected to ensure they are not creating an exposure risk. From time to time, schools must close down for asbestos abatement projects and when asbestos materials are disturbed.

In January 2019, Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland closed early when maintenance workers believed they found asbestos-containing materials. The workers found the material in two fire doors that were not inside classrooms. They closed off the area and evacuated the school as a safety precaution.

Asbestos Litigation in Maryland

For years, Maryland has been known as a wasteland for civil lawsuits. The state’s court system was one of the nation’s annual leaders in inactive dockets. Courts in Baltimore were assigned all of the state’s asbestos cases, and a significant number of them sat and sat. The cases that sat often involved plaintiffs with a proven history of asbestos exposure, but they had yet to develop physical impairment because of a related disease.

Maryland courts see many asbestos lawsuits because the state’s industrial and transportation industries exposed many residents to asbestos products. In an effort to serve the sickest plaintiffs first, Baltimore was one of the first jurisdictions to create an active and inactive asbestos docket. The sickest plaintiffs go on the active docket and plaintiffs who aren’t impaired go on the inactive docket.

Maryland does have a statutory cap on non-economic damages, although it is not retroactive and does not apply in lawsuits that prove exposure to asbestos prior to the enactment of the cap. This cap varies in value depending upon the year the injury was discovered.

Maryland courts have ruled in favor of those who claim they developed mesothelioma and other asbestos-related illnesses as a result of secondary exposure to asbestos. Sometimes called take-home exposure, secondary exposure happens when someone occupationally exposed to asbestos unintentionally brings home asbestos fibers on their work clothes, leading to exposure among people they live with or see frequently. Lawsuits for secondary asbestos exposure are not as common as occupational exposure lawsuits, but some have resulted in beneficial verdicts for plaintiffs.