Asbestos & Mesothelioma

Asbestos and mesothelioma share a strong association. The only known cause of mesothelioma cancer is asbestos exposure. Many people who worked with asbestos or were exposed to those who worked with asbestos for long periods inadvertently inhale asbestos dust particles. This usually goes unnoticed, but after time, symptoms of asbestosis, mesothelioma, or other issues often develop. Asbestosis, or fibrosis (scarring) of lung tissue, is caused by extended periods of exposure to asbestos. Its symptoms range from mild, including discomfort and occasional shortness of breath, to fatal or near fatal symptoms such as serious breathing problems or heart failure. While asbestosis is associated only with long exposure periods to asbestos, mesothelioma cancer has been shown to develop decades after brief exposure periods or, infrequently, from unknown causes.

Asbestos/mesothelioma issues and complications affect more than 2,000 new people every year. Because symptoms of asbestos exposure can take so long to manifest, mesothelioma overwhelmingly affects middle-aged and elderly men who worked with asbestos products decades earlier. The families of those who were exposed to asbestos have also developed the cancer, although they constitute a much smaller percentage of the total new mesothelioma cases.

Since the 1980s, increased numbers of cases of asbestosis/mesothelioma cancer, along with a better awareness of the asbestos/mesothelioma cancer connection, have led to a drastic increase in lawsuits against companies who wittingly allowed their workers to be exposed to asbestos. Because mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure, it is almost completely preventable – a fact that forms part of the basis of many of these lawsuits. See the next sections for more information about mesothelioma cancer.