Asbestos may be a rarity in today’s market, but (unfortunately) its toxic legacy lives on.

Earlier this year, a Florida family shared a worrying story: while staying at an RV park in Pinellas County, near St. Petersburg and Tampa, they spotted a dumpster with a large piece of paper attached to its side, emblazoned with a clear warning.

“DANGER: ASBESTOS MAY CAUSE CANCER”

Ryane Smith says she only recently learned that some of the homes in the Retreats Dunedin mobile home and RV park contained asbestos. Some were damaged during Hurricane Helene and now in the process of being dismantled and demolished.

Smith contacted local media after realizing that asbestos-containing material taken from the damaged homes was being thrown into the dumpster mere feet away from her family’s RV.

The dumpster is currently covered with a large plastic sheet that’s sealed across and around the rim with duct tape. According to Smith, though, this wasn’t the case before. Earlier, the sea breeze used to lift the plastic sheet up, potentially contaminating the area with near-invisible asbestos fibers.

“That’s what’s freaking me out through all of this,” Smith told ABC Action News.

Unusual as Smith’s story may be, it is far from unique.

All across the country, tens of millions of Americans continue to live in asbestos-contaminated homes, work in asbestos-tainted offices, and develop asbestos-related illnesses.

Asbestos is Off the Market, but That Doesn’t Mean It’s Gone for Good

Few people today doubt that asbestos is dangerous.

For decades, the federal government has slowly tightened restrictions on the asbestos industry. Faced with mounting regulations—and a near-unprecedented wave of litigation—many asbestos companies collapsed, with some restructuring and others declaring bankruptcy.

However, the risks of asbestos exposure weren’t always obvious.

History of Asbestos Use

Up until the 1970s, the asbestos industry was considered fairly integral to the American economy. Since asbestos is strong and fire-resistant, it was used for a variety of purposes and in a multitude of different products. Companies were proud to market asbestos-containing materials—and people were happy to purchase them, believing that they could help keep their homes sturdy and their families safe.

Before the federal government began cracking down, asbestos could be found in almost everything imaginable: automotive brakes, boiler ducts, insulation, vinyl floor tiles, gloves, cosmetics—even cigarette filters.

Although a series of EPA rules passed between the 1970s and 1980s effectively took asbestos off the market, it never quite disappeared. Most homes that were built with asbestos decades ago are still asbestos-contaminated—and many products made from asbestos fiber have survived decades of heavy, regular use relatively intact.

Since so-called “legacy” asbestos is largely unregulated, nobody knows how many Americans are exposed to asbestos on a daily basis. According to some estimates, about 30 million homes continue to contain concerning concentrations of asbestos; countless other structures, from schools to office buildings and New York City subway tunnels, remain contaminated.

Asbestos Contamination is Often Unnoticeable—And Deadly

Asbestos is associated with a wide range of serious illnesses, up to and including malignant mesothelioma, an unusually aggressive and life-threatening type of cancer.

However, even though asbestos can ravage the body, exposure isn’t always noticeable.

Many surviving asbestos products, like vinyl floor tiles and plumbing fixtures, rarely look like they’re made from asbestos. But, with time, asbestos-containing materials can degrade and fall apart. They may remain usable, but sometimes sustain just enough damage to displace tiny, microscopic, and near-undetectable asbestos fibers.

Asbestos exposure can happen in any one of several different ways. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

Occupational asbestos exposure

Occupational asbestos exposure is asbestos exposure that occurs in the workplace. In the past, occupational asbestos exposure was by far the most common type of asbestos exposure. This is because workers in many industries, like manufacturing and the trades, worked with and around asbestos-containing materials on a very regular basis.

Secondary asbestos exposure

Secondary asbestos exposure, sometimes termed “domestic asbestos exposure” or “para-occupational asbestos exposure,” occurs when a person who is occupationally exposed to asbestos inadvertently brings residual asbestos fibers home on their clothes and in their hair. These fibers can then be transferred to fixed objects, such as furniture, or become mixed in with an entire family’s laundry, exposing everyone in the same household to asbestos—even children, and others who have never worked with or around asbestos.

Environmental asbestos exposure

Environmental asbestos exposure occurs whenever asbestos is present in the natural environment. Most cases of environmental exposure have one of two different causes.

Natural and Unnatural exposures to asbestos in the environment

The first, and least common cause, is living close to a natural asbestos deposit.

Deposits can be found across the country, but they are particularly common in parts of California, Idaho, Montana, and Appalachia. The second, and most common cause, is when private individuals or corporations dump or otherwise pollute the natural environment with asbestos fibers. This may occur during construction, renovation, or demolition. In the case of the Smith family, it allegedly happened due to a local business’s negligence.

Your Rights After Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos exposure is not a guaranteed death sentence—in fact, the vast majority of cases have no adverse medical consequences whatsoever.

However, one of asbestos’s biggest dangers is how slowly it attacks the body from the inside-out.

Latency: Asbestos diseases like mesothelioma and lung cancer can take 20-50+ years to appear after you’re first exposed.

Unlike catching the flu or a common cold, most asbestos-related illnesses have very long latent periods. It can take years, and often decades, for a person who has been exposed to asbestos to begin exhibiting the symptoms of a condition like malignant pleural mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer.

Speak to an Asbestos Attorney to Seek Compensation (Without a Lawsuit)

If you, or a loved one, have been injured by asbestos, you may not have to bear the burden of recovery alone. For years, courts across the United States have found that asbestos companies are broadly responsible for the harm they’ve inflicted—to their employees, to workers’ families, and to the general public.

The Law Offices of Justinian C. Lane, Esq.-PLLC, have spent decades helping families rebuild their lives after being diagnosed with a life-altering asbestos illness. Depending on the circumstances of your exposure, our experienced team of legal professionals could:

Determine if you are eligible to file an asbestos exposure lawsuit
Conduct an investigation to determine how, when, and where you were exposed to asbestos
Use tools like W.A.R.D., our in-house database of asbestos-related exposure information, to identify the right defendants for your claim
Represent you in settlement negotiations or at trial

Outside of court, many Americans who have been exposed to asbestos could be entitled to other options for asbestos compensation.