Take-home claims are brought by spouses and children who allege exposure from laundering contaminated work clothing or from household contact with a worker. They arise most often in asbestos litigation.
The threshold issue is whether the employer or premises owner owed a duty to a person never present at the worksite.
Alternative Names:
Secondary Exposure, Household Exposure
Why it Matters?
Duty is the dispositive question and states have divided sharply, with some recognizing a duty to household members based on foreseeability and others declining because the relationship is too remote. Where duty exists, exposure quantification is even more difficult than in occupational claims, since it depends on secondhand recollection of laundry practices decades earlier. The doctrine has extended beyond asbestos to other substances in some jurisdictions.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Do employers owe a duty to household members?
How is take-home exposure quantified?
