Miss. Woman Wins Settlement Over Secondhand Asbestos

A Mississippi woman who said she got cancer after years of washing clothes that were covered with asbestos dust has won a settlement from four companies that she blamed for her illness.

Patsy Jean Bodkin, a retired cook who washed her father’s and brother’s work clothes for years, says the clothes were covered in asbestos dust that ultimately made her sick. Now bedridden, Bodkin relies on oxygen and morphine. She was expected to travel from her nursing home in northern Mississippi to Atlanta on Monday for trial, but last week the parties reached an out-of-court settlement.

A secondhand exposure suit is unusual, attorneys said.

“It’s more common to see asbestos claims from the person who works hands-on with it at work,” said Atlanta attorney David Marshall, who represented one of the defendants.

The settlement agreements are confidential, said Bodkin’s attorney, G. Patterson Keahey of Birmingham.

Bodkin, 60, sought medical care in 2003 after feeling sick and having trouble breathing. Her attorney said doctors found a fluid buildup around her lungs and diagnosed her with malignant pleural mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer most often linked to asbestos exposure.

Bodkin filed suit in Fulton County State Court in 2005 against several companies that made roofing, siding, joint compounds and insulation products used by her father and brother, who had a small home-building business in Corinth. Since she was a child in rural Mississippi, Bodkin had shaken the dust off their work clothes and laundered them.

Her attorney said none of the companies warned consumers about the dangers of exposure to asbestos even though the industry was aware of the potential harm as early as the 1960s.

Bodkin has settled with four companies, including Georgia-Pacific Corp., whose corporate headquarters are in Atlanta, and two companies that made joint compounds: Kelly-Moore Paint Co. Inc. and Bondex International Inc.

James Malone, a spokesman for Georgia-Pacific, wouldn’t discuss specifics of Bodkin’s case, but said: “We believe if people have injuries or illnesses that were caused by asbestos-containing products that are our products, those people should be compensated.”

The fourth company, Certainteed Corp., also agreed to settle out of court, but Marshall, the Pennsylvania-based company’s Atlanta attorney, insists Certainteed products weren’t to blame.

“We think the testimony would have demonstrated that any exposure to our product did not cause her illness,” he said.

Still, the company decided not to take a chance at trial.