Former Honeywell employees dealing with asbestos-related health problems
In Kansas City, Missouri, employees of the former Honeywell plant are now beginning to develop serious illnesses that can be linked to their employment history. Tony Ross, a former employee, is suffering from an asbestos-related illness. Exposure to asbestos can lead to a variety of ailments, including lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer.
Mesothelioma may take decades to develop, but the disease can lead to death within months of the onset of symptoms. The cancer affects thousands each year in the United States, with the numbers expected to increase over the coming decade.
Ross is 65 and suffering from chronic bronchitis and asbestosis. He worked for many years at the Kansas City Honeywell Plant making non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons, where according to some estimates he was exposed to as many as 785 toxic substances, including asbestos. During his work as a custodian at the plant, he was only rarely told to tape up the edges of his coveralls to avoid contamination.
"We had meetings," Ross says, "but they didn’t tell us anything about safety. They told us what was coming up next, as far as the job, stuff like that, but they didn’t tell us nothing about safety. I don’t think they thought about it."
Ross also told reporters about an asbestos abatement project at Honeywell in the late 1980s and early ’90s. While the asbestos abatement workers donned protective gear, the Honeywell staff had nothing to protect them from the work taking place behind a plastic sheet, which opened and closed during the course of the day. "We’re in the same area working, with nothing on … running the machines," Ross said.
