Mesothelioma in New Hampshire

Asbestos in New Hampshire

New Hampshire has a distinctive asbestos history centered on manufacturing and the disposal of manufacturing waste. Government-supported records identify asbestos-product plants in Nashua, Tilton and Meredith, with operations spanning much of the 20th century.

Johns-Manville operated asbestos manufacturing facilities in Nashua and Tilton. Beginning in the early 1900s, the Nashua plant combined asbestos fiber and cement to make commercial and industrial products.

Waste from the manufacturing process was disposed of on and around the property and was also distributed as fill in the Nashua area. Johns-Manville stopped manufacturing asbestos-containing products at the Nashua facility in 1985.

The Tilton facility, built by Johns-Manville in the 1940s, primarily manufactured asbestos-containing paper insulation.

Quin-T later acquired the plant and continued making an asbestos-containing product until 1987. In Meredith, Amatax Corporation, formerly American Asbestos Textile Corporation, manufactured asbestos cloth from approximately 1951 to 1982.

Compensation for Asbestos Exposure in New Hampshire

A mesothelioma diagnosis may lead to more than one compensation option. The options that may apply depend on factors such as where and how asbestos exposure occurred, the companies or products involved, employment history, military service and where a claim can legally be filed.

Common options include:

• Personal Injury Lawsuit: A person diagnosed with mesothelioma may be able to bring a lawsuit against one or more parties allegedly responsible for asbestos exposure.
• Wrongful Death Claim: When a person dies from an asbestos-related disease, the legally authorized representative may be able to pursue claims allowed under applicable wrongful-death and estate law.
• Asbestos Trust Fund Claim: Some bankrupt asbestos companies established trusts with separate exposure and medical criteria; Mesothelioma Fund provides additional information about asbestos trust funds.
• VA Disability Compensation: Veterans may qualify when evidence shows an asbestos-related health condition and asbestos contact during military service.
• Workers’ Compensation: New Hampshire workers’ compensation law includes occupational disease within its definition of covered injury, although eligibility and filing rules depend on the employment facts.

Mesothelioma Fund can help determine which options may apply and whether a free case review may be appropriate.

Eligibility Requirements for Compensation in New Hampshire

Eligibility is not established by a diagnosis, employer name or jobsite alone.

A claim generally becomes stronger when medical records and exposure evidence can be connected to the company, trust, military service or other program involved.

Useful evidence may include:

• Diagnosis and medical records: Pathology, imaging and other medical documentation supporting the asbestos-related diagnosis.
• Exposure history: A timeline showing where the person worked, what jobs they performed and when asbestos-containing products or materials may have been encountered.
• Employment records: Social Security records, personnel files, pay records, union records, job assignments or other documents that help establish work history.
• Military records: Service records, occupational specialties, duty assignments and supporting evidence of military asbestos contact when pursuing VA benefits.
• Company, product and site evidence: Records identifying relevant manufacturers, contractors, products, facilities or asbestos-containing materials.
• Witness information: Former coworkers or others who can help reconstruct work practices, products or exposure conditions.
• Claimant authority: Estate or representative documents may be needed when a claim is filed after the patient’s death.
• Jurisdiction and timing: Where exposure occurred, where defendants operated and applicable filing deadlines can affect the available options.

Review our guide on documenting asbestos exposure to learn additional examples of records that can be useful.

Mesothelioma Settlements & Verdicts in New Hampshire

New Hampshire claimants have secured multiple large settlements and verdicts worth several million in compensation.

The Top Asbestos Exposure Risks in New Hampshire

New Hampshire’s clearest documented asbestos patterns involve former manufacturing plants, disposal sites and work that disturbs asbestos-containing materials. The circumstances of an individual exposure still depend on what materials were present and what work occurred.

Asbestos Manufacturing and Disposal

Workers at asbestos-product plants could work with raw asbestos, asbestos-containing products or manufacturing waste.

New Hampshire records identify historic manufacturing in Nashua, Tilton and Meredith, while state rules specifically recognize numerous legacy disposal sites in Nashua and Hudson filled with Johns-Manville manufacturing waste.

People performing excavation, landscaping, utility or other earth-disturbing work at designated disposal sites may also encounter special asbestos-management requirements. New Hampshire’s current rules require licensing and certification for many people who disturb asbestos at these sites.

Construction, Renovation and Demolition

Older buildings and equipment can contain asbestos in insulation, cement products, pipes, flooring, roofing and similar materials. New Hampshire’s current asbestos-management rules address abatement, demolition and renovation work and establish requirements intended to limit the release of asbestos fibers.

An enforcement case at the Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield illustrates this type of risk. EPA reported that asbestos was improperly removed and disposed of during a 2001 resort renovation.

Industrial and Power-Plant Work

Industrial maintenance can involve insulated equipment, pipes and other heat-resistant materials historically made with asbestos.

A reported mesothelioma verdict involving a worker at a New Hampshire power plant described asbestos-insulation work performed around plant equipment.

Military Service

Military asbestos exposure does not have to occur in New Hampshire to matter to a New Hampshire Veteran.

The VA identifies shipyard work, construction, carpentry and demolition among occupations where service members may have encountered asbestos, along with products such as insulation, pipes, cement sheet, roofing and flooring.

Top Exposure Sites

The locations below appear in government or other supported records involving asbestos manufacturing, disposal or asbestos-containing material.

Listing a location does not establish that every worker or visitor was exposed, or that a particular company is legally responsible for an individual diagnosis.

• Johns-Manville Manufacturing Site in Nashua: EPA states that the property operated as an asbestos-products manufacturing facility from 1900-1985 and later underwent a federal cleanup and demolition project.
• Johns-Manville/Quin-T Facility in Tilton: Johns-Manville built the facility in the 1940s to manufacture asbestos-containing paper insulation. Quin-T later operated the plant and continued producing an asbestos-containing product until 1987.
• Amatax Facility in Meredith: Amatax, formerly American Asbestos Textile Corporation, manufactured asbestos cloth from approximately 1951 to 1982.
• Nashua and Hubson Asbestos Disposal Sites: Current state rules specifically address many sites in the two communities that were filled with Johns-Manville asbestos manufacturing waste before July 10, 1981.
• Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield: EPA reported an illegal asbestos-removal and disposal case associated with renovation of the resort in 2001.

Individuals trying to reconstruct an exposure history can compare former addresses, employers, job assignments and coworkers against documented facilities and disposal-site records.

How to File for Mesothelioma Compensation in New Hampshire

There is no single filing process for every type of mesothelioma compensation. Lawsuits, asbestos trusts, VA benefits and workers’ compensation each have their own procedures.

1. Meet With a Mesothelioma Attorney: An attorney can review the diagnosis, exposure history, possible responsible parties, jurisdictions, deadlines and available claim types. This is especially important when a person worked in several states or encountered asbestos through multiple employers or products.

2. Gather Evidence and Documentation: Collect available medical records, employment and Social Security history, military records, union information, product or jobsite evidence, witness information and estate documents when relevant. Older records may take time to locate, so an exposure timeline can help organize what is known.

3. File the Appropriate Claims: Depending on the facts, filing may involve a personal-injury or wrongful-death lawsuit, one or more asbestos trust claims, a VA disability claim, workers’ compensation or another applicable program. Each uses separate forms, eligibility criteria and filing rules.

4. Complete Claim Discovery or Review: A lawsuit may involve written discovery, document exchange, depositions and other court procedures. Trust administrators, VA and workers’ compensation agencies instead use their own evidence-development or claim-review processes.

5. Settlement, Trial, Liquidation, or Benefit Decision: A lawsuit may settle or proceed to trial. An asbestos trust may approve, value or deny a claim under its distribution procedures. VA or a workers’ compensation agency may issue a benefit decision. The possible outcome and terminology depend on the type of claim.

New Hampshire Asbestos Litigation Rules

New Hampshire’s filing rules require close attention because different statutes and claim types can interact. General time limits provide a starting point, but they should not be used to calculate an individual patient’s deadline without reviewing the actual facts.

Personal-Injury Claims

RSA 508:4 generally provides a three-year limit for personal actions. When an injury and its causal relationship to the complained-of conduct were not discovered and could not reasonably have been discovered earlier, the statute measures the period from when the plaintiff discovered—or reasonably should have discovered—the injury and causal relationship.

Read New Hampshire RSA 508:4

Wrongful-Death Claims

RSA 556:11 says an action may be brought within six years after death but expressly makes that period “subject to” RSA 508. In Cheever v. Southern New Hampshire Regional Medical Center, the New Hampshire Supreme Court held that the applicable wrongful-death limitations period was three years.

Read New Hampshire RSA 556:11

Workers’ Compensation

New Hampshire workers’ compensation law treats an occupational disease arising from employment as an injury for purposes of the chapter. RSA 281-A:21-a generally bars compensation unless a claim is filed within three years after the date of injury, but it includes a knowledge provision when the employee does not know the nature of the injury and its possible relationship to employment.

Read New Hampshire RSA 281-A:21-a

Jurisdiction and Multiple Claims

A New Hampshire resident may have worked with asbestos in another state, served in the military elsewhere or have claims involving companies headquartered outside New Hampshire. Those facts can affect jurisdiction and which laws or procedures apply. Asbestos trust claims, civil lawsuits, VA claims and workers’ compensation also follow distinct processes.

Treatment Help

New Hampshire patients have an in-state specialty resource through Dartmouth Cancer Center’s Comprehensive Thoracic Oncology Program. Dartmouth specifically lists mesothelioma among the thoracic cancers and conditions treated by the program.

The program’s Lebanon location is at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive. Dartmouth’s program page also lists New Hampshire cancer-center locations in Manchester, Nashua and Keene. Patients can ask the program which location is appropriate for the specific consultation or treatment they need.

Dartmouth’s mesothelioma information describes potential care approaches including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and clinical trials, while making clear that which treatments apply depends on the individual patient’s circumstances.

To learn more, we have a treatment-center resource to help patients and families prepare questions about specialist experience and access to care.

We Can Help

A mesothelioma diagnosis can leave families trying to reconstruct jobs, employers, products and exposure events that happened decades ago. Mesothelioma Fund can help organize that history and explain the broad compensation options that may be worth discussing with an attorney.

We can also help patients and families identify useful records, understand the differences among lawsuits, trusts and government benefits, and locate treatment resources. Eligibility and results depend on the facts of each case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Written & Legally Reviewed By

Daniel Wasserberg, Esq. Attorney and On-Site Legal Advocate

Daniel Wasserberg was a New York metropolitan area “Super Lawyer Rising Star” from 2013 to 2018 (attorneys under age 40), and a Super Lawyer in 2019. In 2017, Daniel was named a “Top 100 Civil Litigator” by the National Trial Lawyers organization. This recognition is rarely awarded to attorneys under the age of 40. Daniel is proud to call himself a Trial Lawyer, and is often asked to speak at gatherings of the nation’s leading attorneys, from both sides of the bar.

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