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There are many large lawsuits going on regarding this disease. My question is:

Should the manufacturers of asbestos be liable? Asbestos was used so extensively for so many years. There was no indication at the time that there was anything dangerous about it.

What are your thoughts on it? I remember in the late 1970's when most of the hairdryer manufacturers recalled their units which had asbestos in them. (Just about all of them did.) I wonder if blow drying my hair for all those years will come back to haunt me?

What is your story? Check out the information below for a backgrounder:

What is Mesothelioma?

The National Cancer Institute states that: "Malignant mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, is a disease in which cancer (malignant) cells are found in the sac lining the chest (the pleura), the lining of the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum) or the lining around the heart (the pericardium)."

How do you get Mesothelioma?

Most people with malignant mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they breathed asbestos. Others have been exposed to asbestos in a household environment, often without knowing it.

The incidence of mesothelioma rises with the intensity and duration of exposure to asbestos. However, there are numerous cases of mesothelioma among people with very little occupational exposure or even household exposure. There are cases of people getting mesothelioma 30 or 40 years after a summer job working construction, and cases of housewives or children being exposed from work clothing. Many people being diagnosed with mesothelioma now were exposed in the Navy many years ago, often unknowingly.

Materials Containing Asbestos

Most insulation materials before the mid-1970s contained asbestos. Many other construction materials also contained asbestos. Some of the most common products were:

* Insulation on pipes

* Boiler insulation

* Insulating cements, plasters, and joint compounds that came in powder form and created a lot of dust before being completely mixed with water.

* Fireproofing spray

* Firebrick and gunnite used for internal insulation of furnaces, boilers, and other vessels

* Roof, floor, and ceiling tiles.

* Transite siding

* Brakes and clutches

Trades

The following tradesmen could have worked around asbestos:

* Insulators (also known as asbestos workers) who actually installed insulation

* Boilermakers who constructed boilers which were often several stories high and filled with insulation

* Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters who fitted and welded pipes together and often worked in small unventilated compartments in ships where large quantities of insulation were used

* Plasterers who worked with fireproofing spray on steel beams

* Shipyard workers and Navy personnel

* Electricians, mechanics

* Bricklayers; millwrights; carpenters; and other building trades workers

* Steel workers; refinery and other industrial workers;

* Maintenance workers; laborers; many others.

Sites

Industrial sites typically had the heaviest exposure. These include shipyards where ships were constructed or overhauled, power plants, refineries, paper mills, manufacturing plants, foundries, and construction sites..

i've been hearing more about this lately. i'm of mixed emotions about going after manufacturers if thy clearly had no foreknowledge of the dangers. we're all exposed to things that may later be found to be dangerous to ones longevity/health. there are no guarantees in life.



one thing i've always wondered about is why there isn't a problem with asbestos in brake pads. most brake pads are made from asbestos, and each time you brake, it creates dust particles of asbestos. is it that the friction changes the characteristics of the particles to render them benign? seems pretty strange.

Wow Florrie,

Sorry to hear this. What a blow that must be to finally get to retirement and have this condition flare up on you. Since the prognosis is terminal, do you know how long he has to live? Can he live his final days with some comfort and peace or will it be a difficult time?

oh boy if you start to hold manufacturers liable look out you will open a huge kettle of fish and likely the tobacco industry would be the first to create a big stink (sorry no pun intended)

It is amazing how so much chemical exposure and results of this are coming to light in recent years. Things we never knew about in the past, I see us going back to the days of less chemicals, or we will be wiping human kind real soon.

Manufactures of products will never be held liable, look at the lead paint, cigarettes etc we can only dream.

minks wrote: oh boy if you start to hold manufacturers liable look out you will open a huge kettle of fish and likely the tobacco industry would be the first to create a big stink (sorry no pun intended)

It is amazing how so much chemical exposure and results of this are coming to light in recent years. Things we never knew about in the past, I see us going back to the days of less chemicals, or we will be wiping human kind real soon.

Manufactures of products will never be held liable, look at the lead paint, cigarettes etc we can only dream.


Let's not forget that there is the question of it being the way to stop fires. Who would've thought that something, that has saved countless lives and properties from destruction, would have turned out to be death traps for those that used it?

Even though it was bad, wasn't there the, "What if they had put it in the Twin Towers?" crew that spoke up for its better uses? A lot of it was mined in Quebec and the thoughts of jobs and not health were the mainstays of the industry.

I am always sad to hear about people that spend their lives working only to discover that some of the products that were in their work were carcinogenic or worse.

Yes I lost my grandfather to i think it was called "black lung" as he worked for years in a coal mine.

minks wrote: Yes I lost my grandfather to i think it was called "black lung" as he worked for years in a coal mine.
that's a different disease from mesothelioma, however.

anastrophe wrote: that's a different disease from mesothelioma, however.


Well I know that, I was going on about the fact that people work a job for life unaware it could kill them.

This has already happened here, the lawsuits in regards to Asbestos. Now industrial and elsewhere its against the law to provide such, and install in homes. It would be interesting to see when the lawsuits start on Britain in regards to Sellafield Nuclear Station 65 miles from Ireland

Florrie wrote: Incidence rates for mesothelioma increased over the past 20 years with 2,000 new cases identified in USA each year among shipyard workers, mills and mines. Regulations for acceptable levels of disease causing agents are overseen by US Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

Coal mine dust is responsible for miners asthma, silisosis, pneumoconisis = black lung which are all the same symptoms.

US congress ordered black lung to be eradicated from coal industery in 1965.

Three decades later 1,500 former miners die from BL disease each year.
Have you ever seen Margaret's Museum. A Canadian production that showed the living hell of mining. Great film. Makes you realize.