Woman’s Mesothelioma Death Blamed on Laundering Asbestos-Laden Clothes
In 2018, 70-year-old Bonnie J. Bonito died of malignant mesothelioma despite never having worked with or near asbestos. The family’s investigation of how the Rhode Island woman had contracted the rare form of cancer, they found she’d spent decades laundering her ex-husband’s asbestos-laden clothes. They filed suit against dozens of companies whose products he’d been exposed to at his construction job.
Washing Asbestos-Covered Work Clothes Is a Common Cause of Mesothelioma in Women
Though most people diagnosed with mesothelioma can trace their asbestos exposure to their workplace, many women diagnosed with the rare form of cancer have never worked with the material. Though the source of their exposure was once a mystery, it is now understood that these women breathed in the carcinogenic fibers when they laundered their husbands’ asbestos-dust-covered work clothes at the end of each day. That is what Bonnie Bonito’s family says happened to her.
Though the mesothelioma victim’s family originally named seventy defendants in their wrongful death claim, many of those cases were settled out of court, leaving twelve companies to face the evidence of Mrs. Bonito’s exposure from 1966 until 1990, when she’d been married to Mr. Bonito and had cleaned his work clothes and shoes several times each week. Those companies objected to two of the expert witnesses being called to testify in the case — a pulmonologist and an industrial hygiene expert prepared to discuss the steps that need to be taken to protect family members of asbestos workers.
Superior Court Judges Reject Asbestos Companies’ Argument in Mesothelioma Claim
After careful review and consideration, the judges of the Superior Court of Rhode Island denied the companies’ requests for the witnesses to be barred from testifying in the mesothelioma case. Though they agreed that the industrial hygienist could not offer an opinion on whether a warning label about the dangers of asbestos on the companies’ products would have made a difference, he allowed the expert to testify about how asbestos spreads onto clothing.
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