Mesothelioma and Asbestos
Asbestos has been around for ages. Unfortunately it is the primary cause of a great deal of diseases including mesothelioma. The ancient Greeks were responsible for naming the mineral, which literally means inextinguishable. Appropriately, the Greeks named it for it's unbelievable fireproof capacity, despite their awareness of the harmful effects they had on their workers.Used for the production of several things, asbestos is a soft and flexible mineral. Nowadays the most common use for which asbestos is famous for is insulation. Also, it been widely used in the making of a lot of items and structures that may include anything from your ceilings to your walls, from toasters to hairdryers. This mineral became all the more popular during the industrial revolution because of its effectiveness and its safety characteristic as a form of insulation. Safe because it was indeed fireproof and not in any other sense as can be proven by the ill effects it entails. Despite the risks involved in working with it that had already been observed some hundred years ago, these risks were however not taken into account when asbestos was widely used for insulation purposes.
Eventually during the 1990s many facts regarding the risks involved with the use of the mineral began to emerge. Traces of fibers and dust of the same mineral were discovered by an English physician from a post-mortem on a man who worked with asbestos for many years. The doctor confirmed that the man had actually died from his constant exposure to the mineral. The following twenty years or so witnessed an unbelievably high mortality rate due to illnesses among workers exposed to the mineral.
It was during the mid-1920s when an English physician made the first diagnosis of asbestosis. Such diagnosis was followed by the study that proved that 25 percent of English asbestos workers manifested signs of a lung disease. This triggered the English government to enact laws to provide better ventilation and protection to workers who were exposed to asbestos on a regular basis. Other countries over the world took the same steps over the next decade.
However, all this was slow to be implemented and likewise did not prove very effective. Despite the fact that manufacturers and companies who were in the asbestos business were now aware of the risks involved, they never refrained from using the harmful asbestos thereby exposing thousands of workers to the hazards associated with the mineral. Totally unaware of the harm that the mineral was capable of causing, these workers continued to work with asbestos. By mid-seventies, a lot of these workers were already unknowingly afflicted by what we now know as the cancer mesothelioma.
Because of the long latency period of the disease, it is only now that those workers exposed to the mineral in the 1950s up to the 1970s are being diagnosed with the disease. With the numerous cases being filed against the guilty companies, most of these companies have actually hired specialized lawyers to focus on these lawsuits. Unfortunately for many of these companies, they were asked to pay millions of dollars to the poor victims of this heinous crime and as such many have applied for bankruptcy.
What is so alarming now is the fact that despite the information that people have observed and learned regarding the ill effects of the mineral asbestos, it still remains to be widely used in the production of many items in many places around the world. Many people, although thinking that they are wearing protection and thus they will be safe, continue to expose themselves to the harmful dusts and fibers of the mineral. Several laws continue to be studied and passed regarding this issue. And although regulations regarding asbestos are more stringent nowadays, this doesn’t in any way change the fact that this mineral pose more harm than good and that it has claimed victims from all over the world—in the form of mesothelioma.
