The single most common route of take-home asbestos exposure was laundering a worker’s clothes. A tradesperson working in insulation, a shipyard, or construction came home with clothing saturated in asbestos dust — and the family member who washed those clothes was exposed every time.

Why Laundering Was So Dangerous

Asbestos fibers cling to fabric. When contaminated work clothes were handled at home, the fibers were re-released into the air:

  • Shaking out the clothes before washing sent a cloud of fiber into the laundry room and the person’s breathing zone
  • Sorting and loading dusty clothes stirred up fibers
  • Emptying pockets and cuffs full of asbestos debris
  • The laundry area itself became contaminated over months and years of repeated washing
  • Fibers spread to other clothing washed in the same machine

The person doing this — most often a wife or mother — was exposed to concentrated bursts of airborne asbestos, repeatedly, for as long as the worker held the job.

The Workers Whose Clothes Carried the Most Asbestos

The dustiest trades produced the most contaminated clothing:

  • Insulators and asbestos workers
  • Shipyard and Navy workers from engine and boiler rooms
  • Boilermakers, pipefitters, and steamfitters
  • Construction and demolition workers
  • Auto mechanics (brake and clutch dust)
  • Drywall finishers and others in dusty building trades

Employers Often Knew

A significant issue in take-home litigation is that many employers and product manufacturers understood that fibers left the plant on workers’ clothes — yet failed to warn workers, provide on-site laundering or changing facilities, or caution families. Courts have found that this take-home hazard was foreseeable.

Who Was Harmed

Spouses (usually wives) who did the family laundry, and sometimes children who helped, inhaled asbestos from contaminated clothes. Many are diagnosed with mesothelioma decades later, having never worked with asbestos themselves.

If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease and were exposed to asbestos while washing or handling a family member’s asbestos-contaminated work clothes, you may be entitled to compensation through asbestos trust funds and civil litigation.

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