Construction workers

Construction workers work in the construction industry. Many of these workers work directly on construction sites for industrial, commercial, and residential development. These workers can also work in existing structures and perform renovations of schools, buildings, and residential complexes.

The term construction worker covers a large group of trades. Different trades that are included in this term are carpenters, masons, painters, plumbers, electricians, painters, laborers to name a few. Construction laborers are one of the most common construction workers in the industry and can be found on many different sites including building sites, highways, and commercial structures. The job of a construction laborer can vary from site to site. One construction laborer can be in charge of cleaning and preparing a construction site while another laborer could be responsible for creating and breaking down temporary structures such as scaffolding. Overall, the construction laborer plays a major support role to a job site and its additional construction workers. A successful construction laborer helps create a job site environment that runs efficiently and smoothly.

Construction workers can work in very harsh environments and extreme heights. The harshness of the environment brings extreme hazards to the construction worker and has made this trade the most dangerous land based civilian work sector in the world. Hazards for a construction worker on a job site include manual labor, falling at extreme heights, and exposure to hazardous materials such as asbestos.

All construction workers can face the possibility of an asbestos exposure. For the most part of the 20^th century, a large number of building materials were built with asbestos. Asbestos was used in these materials for its heat-resistance and insulation characteristics. Up until the 1970's and 1980's, asbestos containing building products were used in many structures including residential buildings, bridges, schools, and other commercial buildings.

A construction worker could face exposure to asbestos in numerous ways. The first method of exposure could come while working on new construction sites. While most modern day building materials are asbestos free, there are still legacy materials in existence that could potentially be used on a site. During installation, the construction worker working with the material could potentially disrupt the asbestos and cause the asbestos fibers to become airborne. In turn, the construction worker could potentially inhale the asbestos fibers or have the contaminant become trapped on the worker's clothing. This could cause the contaminant to be spread to other unknowing family and friends.

Another method of exposure to asbestos for construction workers could come by working on a renovation or rehabilitation project. During the removal or repair of sections within the building or structure, asbestos containing building materials that were originally used could become disturbed and released into the air. This again would cause the same hazard of exposure to the construction worker which would include direct inhalation or transfer of the asbestos fibers to family and friends.

Over the past few years, a growing number of construction workers that have been exposed to asbestos and in-turn developed an asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma and asbestosis have brought litigation against the construction sites and manufacturers of these asbestos containing products. In 2001, a California construction worker and his family were awarded over $50 million dollars for his asbestos exposure to a product manufactured by a prominent paint company. Another construction worker settled for $20 million dollars with a large construction material company after being exposed to one of its asbestos containing products on a construction job site.

In the tri-state area surrounding Keefe Bartels Clark, new construction and renovations of older buildings has been growing substantially for the past few decades. With that creates a large hazard to asbestos containing products. Construction workers in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania need to exercise all possible cautions when working on these job sites to prevent exposure to asbestos. For those construction workers that feel that they have been exposed to asbestos while working, it is imperative that he or she seeks the appropriate physician care and legal advice.