Some of the most tragic mesothelioma cases involve people who were exposed to asbestos as children — not at any job, but simply by growing up in the home of a parent who worked in an asbestos trade. Because mesothelioma has a latency of 20 to 50 years, a child exposed in the 1960s or 1970s may be diagnosed as an adult today.

How Children Were Exposed

A parent — usually a father — came home from an asbestos job covered in fibers, and children were exposed through everyday family life:

  • Hugging a parent still wearing dusty work clothes
  • Sitting on a parent’s lap or being carried while they wore contaminated clothing
  • Playing in the laundry area or near where work clothes were shaken out and washed
  • Riding in the family car that carried asbestos fibers
  • Living in a home where fibers had settled into carpets, furniture, and dust
  • In some cases, greeting a parent at the plant gate or visiting the workplace

Children breathe faster than adults relative to body size, and their exposure came during years of close physical contact with a parent — a combination that made household exposure a genuine risk.

Diagnosed Decades Later

A person exposed as a child often has no memory of any “asbestos exposure” — they simply grew up in a normal household. When mesothelioma appears in mid-life, the connection to a parent’s long-ago occupation may not be obvious. Identifying that a parent worked in an asbestos trade is often the key to understanding the diagnosis and to any claim.

A Recognized Basis for a Claim

Take-home exposure claims brought by the children of asbestos workers are recognized in asbestos litigation. A person diagnosed with mesothelioma from childhood household exposure may have a legal claim, even though the exposure happened decades ago and they never worked with asbestos.

What to Document

  • The parent’s occupation and employer(s) during your childhood
  • The trade (insulation, shipyard, construction, auto, industrial)
  • The years you lived in the household

If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma and were exposed to asbestos as a child through a parent who worked in an asbestos trade, you may have a legal claim.

This information is educational and does not constitute legal or medical advice.