stethoscope

Railroads have known for almost 100 years that asbestos was dangerous to anyone working around it. Other blogs have discussed that railroads chose to not educate their workers about asbestos hazards because they were worried that doing so would lead to more cancer lawsuits. The railroads’ delay in warning workers about asbestos cancer hazards meant that countless railroad workers got sick and died without getting any of the compensation they were entitled to under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). More recently, railroad workers and retirees have learned from different sources that the asbestos, diesel exhaust, silica, creosote, and welding fumes found in railroad operations have been conclusively linked to many different types of cancer:

  • mesothelioma,
  • lung cancer (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell, small cell),
  • laryngeal cancer (voice box cancer),
  • esophageal cancer,
  • colon/rectal cancer,
  • stomach cancer,
  • tongue cancer,
  • tonsil cancer,
  • kidney cancer (renal cell, clear cell), and
  • bladder cancer (urothelial cell, transitional cell carcinoma).

The problem is that there still is not enough awareness about the exposures to lesser-known cancer-causing substances that railroad workers regularly face and, in some cases, still face on a daily basis. As an example, most railroad workers do not know that there is benzene in diesel exhaust which has been linked to certain types of blood cancer and leukemia:

  • myelodysplasia syndrome (MDS),
  • acute myeloid leukemia (AML),
  • chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL),
  • chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and
  • polycythemia vera (PV).

Similarly, many railroad workers do not know that they are exposed to another cancer-causing chemical known as glyphosate — one of the active ingredients in the weed spray Round-Up) — whenever they work near spray trains or spray trucks in railroad yards or along the main line. Documents obtained in railroad cancer lawsuits provide solid evidence that the nation’s railroads were and are using glyphosate and other dangerous chemicals to kill weeds on railroad properties. The railroads’ choice to use hazardous chemicals means railroad workers will continue to get sick in the future according to published medical studies which link these chemicals to non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and other types of cancer.

The railroads have not done enough to educate railroad workers and retirees about the hazards of the substances they worked around day and night, year after year, oftentimes over many decades. If you are a railroad worker or family member of a railroad worker and would like to find out more information concerning railroad cancer lawsuits, call the railroad cancer lawyers at Doran and Murphy PLLC. With our decades of experience, we are ready to protect your rights!