About Mesothelioma
What is mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma is the story of Americans who worked hard to build and defend this country. For 50 years, America's industrial and building trades workers, Navy personnel and many others were exposed to asbestos. The so-called "miracle mineral" was common in the workplace, on Navy ships and in shipyards, and many were exposed simply by breathing the air at their job sites.
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Mesothelioma is
a relatively rare
type of cancer
that usually kills
within a year or
two of diagnosis
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When they brought the asbestos fibers home each night in their clothes and hair, their families were also exposed. Thousands of Americans each year now develop mesothelioma, a malignant tumor that aggressively invades the linings of the lungs, abdomen, heart or testicles. By the time symptoms appear and cancer is diagnosed, the disease is often advanced. The average survival time is one year.
What causes mesothelioma?
The only known cause of mesothelioma in the United States is previous exposure to asbestos fibers. Asbestos manufacturers knew about the hazards of asbestos seventy years ago — but they kept this knowledge to themselves. The first warnings given to workers exposed to asbestos were in the mid-1960s, and they were terribly inadequate. Even today, workers are not always told they are working around asbestos and are at risk for asbestos disease.
People exposed in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s are now being diagnosed with mesothelioma because of the long latency period of asbestos diseases.
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