Honoring Paul Brodeur, Champion for Asbestos Victims
With so much of the legal history of asbestos revolving around corruption and coverups, it’s important to acknowledge those who have helped turn the tide by bringing hidden details into the light of public knowledge. One such person who has done this is Paul Brodeur, who has recently died at the age of 92 after medical complications. Here’s what you should know about Mr. Brodeur and his legacy of asbestos reporting.
A Voice in the Wilderness
Paul Brodeur was a voice in the asbestos wilderness. He lived from 1931 to 2023, spending most of his life in the New England area as a writer. Brodeur’s lifespan represents an interesting range of time in the asbestos industry. At the time of his birth, what we know about asbestos today in 2023 would have basically been considered a novel assessment of asbestos. The reason for this is not because we now know about asbestos wasn’t true back then, nor was it because of the fact that no one knew the truth about asbestos. Rather, the truth about asbestos was a carefully guarded secret, known only to the asbestos industry and the medical researchers who were unable to see their work spread to the general public.
The Tragic Backdrop of Asbestos Litigation
During the era of Brodeur’s birth and early childhood, asbestos was just as deadly as we consider it today. The difference was, that manufacturers were not preoccupied with using any kind of warning labels or cautionary information in order to warn workers and their families of the cancer-causing properties of asbestos. In fact, even before Brodeur was born, the first-ever asbestos lawsuit was filed by Nellie Kershaw.
Mrs. Kershaw began working for Turner Brother’s Asbestos Company when she was only 26. Within three years, she developed chronic pulmonary symptoms, which were eventually diagnosed as asbestos poisoning. Unfortunately, the company she worked for was willing to hide behind a loophole that allowed them to escape any liability for lost wages or medical care, further aggravating the physical decline of Kershaw, leading to her death three years later at the age of 33. This wife and mother died in a state of poverty, and no record of compensation granted from Turner Brothers exists on file, either to Mrs. Kershaw or to her estate after her untimely death.
From Kershaw to Brodeur
The sad reality of Kershaw is the fact that, had she lived decades into the future, her outcome may have been quite different in the legal realm of asbestos litigation. Unfortunately, she was the frontrunner who was denied any help, all for the sake of no prior precedent being established. The situation of employees vs the asbestos industry would be one of contention and outright denial, that is, until the help of people like Brodeur.
Rising to the Occasion
While Brodeur was born just seven years after the death of Kershaw, his mark on the development of asbestos information would not come until 1968. After college, service in the Army, and the start of a writing career, Brodeur would write the piece for The New Yorker that put him on the asbestos map- and subsequently put asbestos on the mental map of countless Americans: “The Magic Mineral”.
This article went into a deep dive into the history of asbestos, focusing on its uses, exposure concerns, and fundamentally on the carcinogenic properties of asbestos. “The Magic Mineral” goes on to show how asbestos was responsible for taking the type of cancer known as mesothelioma from a “pathological curiosity” to a hallmark of asbestos’ deadly aftermath in the human body.
A Perfect Storm of Support
It’s hard to say just how effective the writing of Brodeur would have been on its own, had it not been for the growing availability of medical research that Brodeur was able to pull from. By the time his 1968 piece was published, the asbestos industry found itself far less able to dismiss and downplay the dangers of asbestos– though they continued to try. However, while the medical community was writing in the 1950s and 1960s, the internet still did not exist. Medical research would have been far less available to the average American.
This is the perfect storm of what made Brodeur’s efforts so effective; he was able to take those truths and present them to the American public, many of whom were asbestos workers themselves. Now that the workers were able to know about this research and the dark side of the industry they worked for, they had a firm foundation for legal action. No longer was the asbestos world a place of isolation and helplessness, the kind of helplessness that Kershaw experienced four decades prior.
The Aftermath of the Storm
The way in which the tide changed from the 1960s up to the present age regarding asbestos is nothing less than astonishing. What was once considered a miracle mineral with almost divine properties was now virtually considered a killing machine. Within two decades of Brodeur’s published piece, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) called for the ban of asbestos in most applications in the United States. Gone were the days of asbestos mining out in the western parts of America.
Gone were the days were asbestos would be used in Hollywood as a substitute for snowflakes. Gone were the days of asbestos usage throughout the construction industry.
Now are the days of exposure aftermath.
While these post-asbestos days come with their own set of challenges, such as ongoing research, complex litigation cases, and a more robust medical field to treat victims, Brodeur’s days have witnessed a changing of the guard, a change that he no doubt was instrumental in achieving.
A Post-Brodeur World?
In an age of misinformation and overall confusion, we need more Brodeurs in the world. What this man was able to accomplish in his journalism was, according to one news outlet, “a road map for litigation that eventually led to the bankruptcy of virtually all the leading asbestos manufacturers”. The kind of robust, all-encompassing asbestos reporting is something that anyone who cares about the dangers of asbestos in the 21st century should take to heart and seek to emulate.
What we now know about asbestos is significant, but much more work needs to be done. Sadly, part of this has to do with the fact of asbestos exposure latency. Some extreme cases such as Kershaw still exist today, but the general pattern from exposure to medical diagnosis can span multiple decades, even as much as fifty years in some cases.
Honoring His Legacy
Because of this, we simply do not know all there is to know about the effects of asbestos on the human body. More cancers are being linked to asbestos than ever before, but ongoing research is still needed. More schools and older buildings are being remediated to protect people from asbestos-containing materials (ACM) but funding and politics continue to serve as blockades to further progress.
However, the most powerful tool in exposing the asbestos industry and providing resources for workers is, making the truth known. We have Brodeur to thank for this, and we honor his legacy by ensuring that the world in which we live in after his death is anything but a post-Brodeur world.
Photo of Paul Brodeur by Nancy Crampton.