Posted on AsbestosHUB.
For years, Mark Buttitta’s dad unknowingly brought home deadly asbestos dust on his clothes after working all day as a parts picker at a GM warehouse. Mark Buttitta even worked at the GM plant himself during summers off from school, handling clutches and brakes that contained asbestos. Asbestos fibers came home on dad’s clothes and on Mark’s clothes when he worked at the warehouse. They lodged in his lungs, and waited.
Over the years, Mark Buttitta went on to college and enjoyed a successful career in advertising, eventually becoming the vice president of MediaVest and earning about $500,000.00 annually. In 2001, Mark Buttitta the dormant asbestos fibers lodged in his lung struck and he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He died a year later — days before his 50th birthday.
Mark Buttitta died because he lived with his family and sat on his dad’s lap when his clothes were covered in asbestos from work. He died because of his choice of summer job. He never knew he should have been concerned about asbestos fibers in his clothing because nobody ever told him.
Mark Buttitta’s wife and three daughters are about to receive the largest verdict in a mesothelioma lawsuit awarded in New Jersey: $30.3M. They will receive it because he did not live long enough to see the lawsuit to fruition.
Handling automotive brake pads made with asbestos was recently the subject of a study published in Annals of Occupational Hygiene to see how much the act of packing and unpacking brake pads and brake shoes exposed people to asbestos. The results were that brake pads resulted in higher worker asbestos exposures than handling brake shoes.
Mark Buttitta’s death shows that anyone can be exposed to asbestos and develop mesothelioma without knowing that the exposure occurred and that it can be second-hand exposure.
Visit the Mark Buttitta Memorial Foundation website.
Watch the video at Asbestos Legal Watch News Minute.
