Abstract
Does litigation against a third-party influence the employer to enhance employees' safety? This research examines, as a case in point, asbestos worker safety precautions before litigation that started in the mid-1970s, attempts to find out whether there was a quantifiable change in safety precautions relating to asbestos over the years, and analyzes whether or not changes in those precautions paralleled third-party litigation based upon exposure to asbestos. For the purposes of this study, the population is composed or workers who were exposed to asbestos and asbestos-containing materials while employed at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, who have brought suit against the manufacturers of asbestos and asbestos containing products from 1974 to 1985. The material for this research was collected from archival data derived from the "discovery" process in asbestos litigation. "Discovery" designates an ensemble of procedures intended to gain information from the opposing party in a lawsuit, and is designed to be as thorough and specific as possible with regard to the extent and complexity of the litigation. The study is intended to help make public policy choices based not upon haphazard decisions but upon actual data to induce increased safety with regard to asbestos. This study found that third party litigation was definitely a factor in enhancing worker safety (49%). However, other factors played an important role as well, such as the literature which was available to the public and the workers in particular (42%), and the health problems that the workers were facing (9%). This study covered one of the public policy choices for enhancing worker safety, which is litigation. It is a fact that this policy had many effects influencing employers to improve their workplace. This research demonstrates that the filing of the lawsuits had some influence on the employer, because, quite suddenly in some instances, paper masks and full face masks were made available to the workers, to protect them from further exposure. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).