Mesothelioma Lawyers Blog

December 13, 2025

Heating Season Hazards: Boilers, Pipe Insulation & Mill Buildings

As the cold settles over Massachusetts, older buildings wake up, the boiler’s fire. Radiators hiss. Maintenance crews make rounds in basements and mechanical rooms that see little daylight the rest of the year. In those tight spaces, especially in schools, hospitals, triple-deckers, and converted mill buildings, legacy asbestos can still be present in pipe insulation, gaskets, boiler refractories, and sprayed fireproofing. When these materials are disturbed, fibers can be released into the air and inhaled. For people with mesothelioma or those facing a new diagnosis, understanding where exposures happen and how to document them is essential to a strong case.

Where Winter Maintenance Creates Asbestos Risk

Boiler start-ups and repairs are classic asbestos scenarios. Old pipe wrap and elbow insulation crack and crumble as systems heat and cool. Boiler doors may use gaskets and refractory materials that, if original, contained asbestos for decades. In pipe chases, ceiling cavities, and around radiators, you may find aging insulation tucked behind panels or plaster. Converted mills and warehouses pose a different challenge: sprayed fireproofing on structural steel and asbestos-containing ceiling tiles are frequently disturbed during tenant build-outs and holiday season logistics expansions. In each setting, dust released during cutting, drilling, or demolition can expose workers and, through take-home contamination on clothing, their families.

November 22, 2025

Plumbers, Pipefitters & Electricians: Cold Weather Job Risks, Asbestos Exposure, and Your Legal Rights

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Winters in Massachusetts and across New England can be brutal. Plumbers, pipefitters, and electricians keep homes warm, water flowing, and power on, often working outside or in unheated basements, rooftops, crawl spaces, and industrial plants. Cold, ice, snow, and aging buildings create serious safety hazards, and for many tradespeople, there is an added risk that is invisible: asbestos exposure that can later cause mesothelioma.

If you or a loved one works in one of these trades and has been injured in a winter accident or diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be feeling overwhelmed, worried about your health, and unsure where to turn. Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers represents plumbers, pipefitters, electricians, and their families in Boston and throughout Massachusetts, helping them pursue compensation after serious work injuries and asbestos-related diseases.

This guide explains the unique cold-weather risks for these trades, how asbestos exposure often occurs on the job, and what legal options may be available if you have been hurt or diagnosed with mesothelioma.

September 23, 2025

Mesothelioma News in Massachusetts & Nationwide

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

September is Mesothelioma Awareness Month, which brings updates across Massachusetts and the U.S., from courtroom milestones to policy moves in Washington and survivor stories that remind us why this work matters.

Why September Matters: Awareness, Action, and Real Stories

Mesothelioma Awareness Month is more than a ribbon; each September, advocates highlight the importance of prevention, early diagnosis, and access to justice. Including a short survivor vignette in your post can humanize the topic and offer newly diagnosed families a starting point. Pull out details like what helped them through treatment, how they navigated care teams, and what they wish they had known on day one.

August 28, 2025

Mesothelioma News For August and Early September 2025

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

As advocates for individuals and families affected by asbestos-related diseases, our mesothelioma attorneys closely monitor every development that could impact treatment options, legal rights, or day-to-day support for the mesothelioma community. August and September 2025 delivered meaningful news on all three fronts: a significant jury verdict against Johnson & Johnson in Massachusetts, momentum behind a new targeted drug, a global Phase III trial to watch, and fresh federal activity on asbestos risk management. Below, we break down what each update means in plain English and explain how it may impact your case or care plan.

1) Massachusetts Jury Returns a $42.6 Million Talc, Mesothelioma Verdict: What It Means

On July 29, and then publicly reported in early August, a Massachusetts jury ordered J&J to pay $42.6 million to a mesothelioma patient who used talc-based Baby Powder for decades. The verdict adds to the body of talc and asbestos trials, where jurors have concluded that asbestos contamination in talc can cause mesothelioma and that consumers were not adequately warned. J&J has indicated it will appeal, as it has in other cases. Appeals can take time, and outcomes vary. Still, a verdict of this magnitude in a Massachusetts court sends a strong signal about how juries here may evaluate causation and corporate knowledge evidence in talc and mesothelioma claims.

June 17, 2025

Protecting the Civil Rights of Mesothelioma Victims in Massachusetts

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Mesothelioma is more than a devastating medical diagnosis; it is a civil justice issue. When asbestos exposure occurs because a manufacturer, contractor, employer, or property owner chose profits over safety, Massachusetts law empowers victims and their families to demand accountability. Our Boston mesothelioma lawyers at Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers have spent decades enforcing those rights in Boston and across the Commonwealth, securing the compensation clients need to cover treatment, support their families, and hold corporate wrongdoers to task.

Why Mesothelioma Cases Are Distinct

Mesothelioma develops only after exposure to asbestos fibers, and it can take 20–50 years for symptoms to surface. The long latency period means that victims are often retired, their employers are long gone, and key witnesses are challenging to locate. Massachusetts courts nonetheless recognize that victims did not know, and could not have known, about the disease until diagnosis. Consequently, the three-year statute of limitations for personal injury suits does not begin to run until the date a reasonable person would connect the illness to asbestos exposure. This “discovery rule,” codified in M.G.L. c. 260, § 2A, protects your right to sue even decades after exposure occurred.

July 31, 2019

Court Considers Expert Witness Admission in Mesothelioma Lawsuits

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In a series of pre-trial Daubert hearings, a U.S. District Court is weighing the qualifications of scientific experts in mesothelioma lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson over talc baby powder products that allegedly caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. The ruling will impact some 12,000 cases pending before the New Jersey federal court.

Plaintiff scientific experts are being vetted after a motion by defense attorneys to exclude those witnesses, arguing their scientific testimony fails to meet the stringent criteria of the Daubert standard, set by the 1993 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Plaintiffs dispute this, arguing the talc powder defendant company sold contained carcinogenic asbestos and asbestos fibers, resulting in their developing cancer.

Daubert hearings are common in mass torts, particularly those in mesothelioma product liability lawsuits, as they involve issues of exposure and causation – key to establishing liability in this multi-district litigation. The defendant company’s effort to dismiss all of plaintiffs’ expert witnesses would effectively result in the end of litigation for these plaintiffs because without that testimony, they won’t have enough proof of their claim.

So far, none of the claims in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey case 3:16-md-02738 have been scheduled for trial. Continue reading

June 28, 2019

Railroad Worker’s Asbestos Lawsuit Upheld After Lung-Cancer Diagnosis

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

There is a common misconception that long-term cigarette smokers don’t have a claim for asbestos exposure in the event of a mesothelioma or lung cancer diagnosis.

But Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) is only the latest and most recent example of a corporate defendant losing that argument. Last week, an Appeals Court rejected the company’s appeal of a $2.3 million jury award after the jury rejected Contrail’s argument that cigarette smoking was solely responsible for the plaintiff’s lung cancer, despite extensive exposure to asbestos on the job. The justices ruled the victim had met his legal burden of proof by presenting enough evidence to show exposure to asbestos was a substantial contributing factor to his cancer.

That’s the legal requirement: Substantial contributing factor. While a victim’s own negligent behavior (like smoking) may be taken into account, it does not absolve a defendant from all liability.

May 29, 2019

New Mesothelioma Treatment offers Hope for Massachusetts Patients

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first new treatment for mesothelioma in more than 15 years.

NovoTTF-100L System (Novocure), in combination with pemetrexed plus platinum-based chemotherapy, has been approved as a first-line treatment for cases of unresectable locally advanced or metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma. Mesothelioma’s long latency period means most victims have in an advanced stage upon diagnosis. Cases that are locally advanced, or which ave spread to other organs, are typically deemed inoperable.

The NovoTTF-100L System is non-invasive. The treatment uses electric fields, known as Tumor Treating Fields, to disrupt cancer-cell division. Approval followed the STELLAR trial, which evaluated effectiveness of the treatment. Our Massachusetts mesothelioma lawyers know such treatment innovations are critical because fewer than 20 percent of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma are candidates for surgical tumor removal due to diagnosis at an advanced stage of the disease.

The clinical trial, held at cancer centers across Europe, included 80 patients with unresectable, previously untreated, malignant pleural mesothelioma. The results were presented in September 2018 at the 19th annual World Conference on Lung Cancer.

“NovoTTF-100L provides unresectable MPM patients with a treatment option that may improve survival,” said Mary Hesdorffer, executive director of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. Results showed that patients treated with NovoTTF-100L plus chemotherapy had a median overall survival of 18.2 months (95% CI 12.1-25.8), while median progression free survival (secondary endpoint) was 7.6 months. Those results are about six months longer than for those patients who only receive chemotherapy treatment.

While such treatment advances are welcome, it is the work being done in the courtroom to hold these companies responsible that will ultimately do the most to protect American consumers.

April 18, 2019

Mesothelioma Dormancy Period a Legal and Medical Focus

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled against a mesothelioma victim who sued GE for asbestos exposure during his career building power plants in the 1970s.

The ruling is the latest to tackle the issue of statutes of limitations in cases where diagnosis is made decades after exposure. Auto manufacturers have won similar verdicts in cases where it could not be determined whether a victim’s exposure was caused by original or replacement parts installed during routine maintenance.

The verdict in Sterns v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. No. SJC-12544 is the latest to tackle the issue of the long dormancy period between asbestos exposure and a mesothelioma diagnosis, which is also an intense focus of medical researchers who continue to search for a cure. Our Massachusetts mesothelioma lawyers continue to follow each of these high-court decisions that impact mesothelioma victims and their families.

March 14, 2019

Johnson & Johnson Liable for Cancer Caused by Asbestos Contaminated Talcum Powder

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Shares of Johnson & Johnson were down in mid-week trading after a California Jury awarded $29 million to a woman who said asbestos in the company’s talcum powder products caused her mesothelioma. Our mesothelioma lawyers in Massachusetts continue to carefully follow each of these talcum powder cases and are committed to fighting for the rights of women and children who have been harmed.

CNBC reports Johnson & Johnson is facing thousands of similar lawsuits as it continues to insist its talcum powder is safe and free of asbestos. The company said it would appeal the verdict, which occurred in California Superior Court in Oakland.

More than 13,000 talcum-related law suits have been filed. Johnson & Johnson lost a similar case in Los Angeles last year, where a jury delivers a $21.7 million verdict. The company also failed to reverse a $4 billion verdict in Missouri, where 22 women had blamed their ovation cancer on use of Johnson Johnson products. Johnson & Johnson is one of the nation’s largest consumer product companies and is currently valued at more than $350 billion.