Many people associate asbestos exclusively with lung diseases, like asbestosis and mesothelioma. But scientists have established a conclusive link between asbestos exposure and esophageal cancer. 

The esophagus is a long, straight tube that connects the back of the throat with the stomach. It pulls food from the back of the throat to the stomach for digestion. Because of its size, shape, and location, esophageal cancer is one of the easiest kinds of cancer to diagnose, especially since it’s so closely tied to digestive problems.

Unfortunately for environmental esophageal cancer victims, including asbestos exposure victims, drastic weight loss and other physical symptoms of cancer often don’t appear for at least fifty years. More on that below. Furthermore, many environmental cancer victims, and their doctors as well, cannot connect the dots between environmental exposure and esophageal cancer.

The link between asbestos and esophageal cancer means an asbestos exposure lawyer can obtain substantial compensation for these victims. The complex legal issues in these claims means this compensation is not easy to obtain.

Possible Asbestos Exposure Victims

Asbestos use tailed off after 1980. But until March 2024, it was still legal to use in the United States. Furthermore, asbestos is still widely used in many countries of the world, such as China, which export a considerable amount of goods to the United States. T

he combination of home-grown and imported asbestos creates four basic kinds of legal victims:

  • Indirect Ambient (Environmental): One thing that makes diagnosing asbestos exposure-related cancer so difficult is that, in many cases, victims have no direct connection to an asbestos job, like construction or shipbuilding. Instead, they fell victim to a toxic cloud, like the one that covered New York City after 9/11, or they used an asbestos-laced product, like talcum powder.
  • Direct Ambient: These mysteries are a bit easier to unravel, but not much easier. Twenty thousand asbestos fibers fit between Abe Lincoln’s nose and mouth on a U.S. penny. So, the aforementioned asbestos workers often unintentionally brought deadly fibers home with them, usually on their clothes, where they infected friends and family. Our team uses an advanced database to connect environmental cancer with a local asbestos hotspot.
  • Indirect Occupational: We mentioned the tiny size of asbestos fibers above. Instead of immediately settling on a shirt or another surface, these fibers often float, often to parking lots and other business common areas. Accountants and other back-office workers never wear PPW (personal protective equipment) or take other such precautions. So, if they encounter floating asbestos fibers, they usually get sick.
  • Direct Occupational: Most construcción, shipbuilding, and other companies used chrysotile (white) asbestos. This thin substance easily packs into attics, wraps around pipes, and is otherwise easy to work with. However, this kind of refined asbestos also quickly breaks down. Fibers and dust were usually airborn by the time a direct occupational worker touched something containing asbestos.

2018 marked a sea change in asbestos litigation. That was the year a court awarded $4.69 billion to twenty-two women who used asbestos-laced talcum powder and developed ovarian cancer.

Before 2018, most asbestos exposure victims were occupational or direct ambient victims. Since then, and in the future, most asbestos exposure victims have, and will be, indirect ambient victims. 

The thousands of talc-asbestos lawsuits pending as of March 2025 may only be the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, because esophageal cancer and other asbestos exposure illnesses take so long to develop, we may not know the full impact of 9/11 until at least 2050.

The Discovery Rule

These different kinds of victims are very diverse, but that all have at least one thing in common.

The average mesothelioma lung cancer latency period is over seventy years. The latency period for esophageal cancer and other non-mesothelioma illnesses is similar.

In most states, the discovery rule protects these victims. According to this legal doctrine, the two-year statute of limitations clock begins ticking down not on the date of exposure, but on the date that:

  • Victims are fully aware of all their damages, and
  • They connect those damages to a tortfeasor’s (wrongful actor’s) conduct or misconduct.

Some states have a statute of repose which short-circuits the discovery rule. The SOR cuts off construction defect-related claims after a certain number of years, usually between seven and ten, regardless of other circumstances.

An asbestos exposure lawyer can review your case and determine, based on your location, if you have litigation options, non-litigation opens, or both.

Here’s how the discovery rule works. Assume Jerry, who was born in 1990, lived near an asbestos mine until 2002, when this activity became illegal in the United States. In 2050, his doctor tells Jerry he has esophageal cancer, a condition he ascribes to Jerry’s smoking. In 2052, Jerry sees a feature story about the fiftieth anniversary of the asbestos mine near his childhood home. A reporter mentioned the link between asbestos and esophageal cancer.

If the discovery rule applies, even though Jerry was exposed to asbestos between 1990 and 2002, the two-year negligence statute of limitations began running in 2052 (awareness and connection). Therefore, an asbestos exposure lawyer has until 2054 to file an action.

A negligence lawsuit against the asbestos-using company is the preferred legal option in most cases.

Although these matters are quite complex, these legal actions usually produce the highest amount of compensation. Most mesothelioma settlements are seven-figure settlements.

Essentially, an asbestos exposure lawyer argues that the company failed to warn the aforementioned potential exposure victims about the risks of asbestos poisoning.

If, at the time of exposure, the victim lived in a state with a statute of repose, litigation is off the table. However, other options are available, such as:

  • Workers’ Compensation: If the exposure was work-related, direct and indirect occupational victims are usually eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, which include lost wage replacement and, perhaps more importantly in these cases, medical bill payment.
  • Discapacidad del VA: Similar benefits are available if the exposure was service-related. Survivors of service-related asbestos exposure victims may be entitled to these benefits as well. A 2017 federal law streamlined these claims, making them somewhat easier to file and resolve.
  • Discapacidad del Seguro Social: Occupational and ambient victims alike are usually entitled to these benefits, which once again include lost wage replacement and medical bill payment. Usually, these benefits are available if the applicant has a permanent disability, a phrase that has a specific legal meaning in these cases.

Hybrid bankruptcy victim compensation fund claims may be an option as well, if the responsible company declared bankruptcy and contributed to a VCF. The bankruptcy VCF process substitutes for the litigation process, so the same compensation is available. However, since no opposing lawyer challenges the evidence, bankruptcy VCF claims procedurally resemble disability claims.