“Dirty Laundry” Documentary Profiles Asbestos Victims

An interesting and informative documentary about the impact of asbestos exposure in the U.S. has now been shown at nearly a dozen film festivals, much to the satisfaction of the two cousin film-makers/producers who took on the project after their 90-year-old grandmother died of mesothelioma cancer due to secondary exposure to the toxin.

The primary film maker, Bryan Lemon, says he joined cousins Zack Johnson and Conor Lewis on the project that became the documentary “Dirty Laundry” because he was moved to spread the word about the victims of asbestos diseases who, he says, were some of the most delightful people he’s ever met, despite their trials with cancers like mesothelioma.

“These people are some of the most positive individuals for having something so horrific happen to them,” said Lemon, one of two Western Kentucky University graduates who produced the film, which will be screened at the school this weekend.

Shot between August and October 2016, the documentary made it into its first film festival this past March, an article in the Bowling Green Daily News explains.

And the response to the film, say the cousins and the producer, has been super positive. Many of those who’ve viewed the film, they add, have a connection to the topic at hand – negligent asbestos exposure by companies who disregarded the health of their employees in favor of saving money.

The cousins’ grandmother was a typical example of someone who developed mesothelioma due to what is typically known as secondary asbestos exposure.

She got sick decades after regularly washing the asbestos dust-laden clothes of her husband, who worked with toxic asbestos products on a regular basis. She would shake out the clothes and then launder them, all the while breathing in the hazardous dust.

Though she lived a long life and was quite elderly when she got sick, she would have been spared the horrible suffering associated with mesothelioma if she hadn’t been unwillingly and perhaps unknowingly exposed to the hazardous mineral.

As it hits more festivals, Lemon hopes the documentary will spread the word about victims like her and others who are suffering similarly. The film will also be available for digital rental, purchase and streaming in 2019, according to a news release by the producers.