January 7th, 2008

A county in Pennsylvania has settled a lawsuit involving an employee who said he was fired after he reported that asbestos was present in the nursing home he worked in. The man was a carpenter that was hired to do repairs in the building.

A settlement has been reached between a contract worker and the nursing home that employed him over the presence of asbestos in the building he was working on. The worker claims that he was fired when he reported high levels of asbestos in floor tiles he was removing from the nursing home. The nursing home stated that the man’s dismissal was due to him falsifying records over the amount of time he was working. The settlement reached will pay the worker $150,000 and will reserve his right to sue the county if he later develops a respiratory illness linked to asbestos exposure.

While the tiles that were tested by the county showed low levels of the dangerous material, the worker stated that he took a piece of the flooring to an independent lab that said the tiles contained harmful levels of asbestos. Asbestos exposure has been linked to mesothelioma, a type of deadly lung cancer, emphysema and asbestosis. Mesothelioma can occur when asbestos fibers are inhaled, normally a result of mishandling or improperly removing the material.