Product Description

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Sears, Roebuck & Company — the dominant mid-20th-century American retailer of household goods — sold consumer ironing board pads and stand-alone asbestos-mat scorch protectors whose heat-protection layer allegedly consisted of woven or felted asbestos fabric. The asbestos layer was engineered into the pad specifically to protect the ironing board and underlying surface from scorching by the hot iron; asbestos-mat scorch protectors were also sold separately as small pads to be placed under hot irons between uses.

Publicly filed litigation has alleged that decades of consumer use — sliding a hot iron across the pad, hand-laundering pad covers, and periodically replacing worn pads — allegedly released asbestos fibers into the breathing zone of the person ironing and into the ambient air of the household laundry room.

Workers Exposed and Household Consumers

  • Homemakers ironing daily or weekly at Sears-brand ironing boards with Sears-brand pads — the primary consumer exposure population, spanning three decades of American household laundry practice
  • Commercial laundry and dry-cleaning workers using Sears-branded pads in industrial settings
  • Consumers handling scorch-protector mats — moving them, storing them, discarding them
  • Retail Sears and Sears catalog fulfillment workers stocking and shipping the pads
  • Sears private-label supplier factory workers fabricating the asbestos-lined pads
  • Household family members — children playing in the laundry room, spouses passing through — during and after ironing sessions

If You Used a Sears Ironing Board Pad or Asbestos-Mat Scorch Protector

If you or a family member ironed regularly on a Sears-brand ironing board pad or used a Sears-brand asbestos-mat scorch protector during the 1940s through 1970s, and were later diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease, publicly filed litigation has recognized this consumer-inhalation vector.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956