Asbestos Lung Cancer Claims Pottsville

Michael Schafle, Esq. provides Asbestos Lung Cancer Claims in Pottsville, PA.

An asbestos lung cancer claim rests on proving two facts: that the person had meaningful asbestos exposure, and that the exposure is medically tied to the lung cancer.

Many retired Schuylkill County tradesmen breathed asbestos dust for decades in the anthracite collieries, the railroad shops, and the boiler and foundry work that ran through Mount Carbon and the Sharp Mountain area. The National Cancer Institute confirms asbestos exposure raises lung cancer risk, and the risk multiplies sharply for workers who also smoked, a combination common among men who spent their lives in the mines and shops.

Asbestos reached workers through pipe insulation, boiler lagging, brake linings, gaskets, cement board, and sprayed fireproofing. OSHA did not set its first asbestos exposure limit until 1971, which means anyone working in Pottsville's industrial trades before then was often exposed with no warning and no protection.

The EPA and the CDC's NIOSH both document how fibers lodge in lung tissue and cause disease that surfaces 20 to 50 years later, which is why a cancer diagnosed today in Jalappa or Greenwood Hill can trace back to a 1960s boiler room.

Deciding how to pursue the claim depends on where the exposure happened. If the exposure was at a plant or on equipment made by a company that later went bankrupt, recovery comes from an asbestos bankruptcy trust, more than $30 billion sits in these trusts, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

If the manufacturers are still solvent, the claim is a lawsuit filed in court, and Pennsylvania asbestos cases are often consolidated for efficient handling. If the work was federal railroad service, a FELA claim under the Federal Employers' Liability Act may apply instead. Many Schuylkill County workers qualify for more than one path at once, and the claims can be pursued together.

The process runs in plain steps.

Step 1: a conversation about the worker's job history, the collieries, the breakers, the specific railroads and shops. Step 2: gathering medical records and the pathology that ties the cancer to asbestos. Step 3: identifying every product and company the worker was exposed to.

Step 4: filing trust claims and, where needed, a lawsuit. Step 5: negotiating or litigating the recovery. Because a loved one is often too sick to travel, Michael Schafle, Esq.

meets families at their kitchen tables across Fishbach, Lawton's Hill, and the neighborhoods near the Schuylkill County Courthouse. The Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania publishes the court rules that govern filing deadlines, and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry administers the workers' compensation that can run alongside a civil claim.