{"id":15840,"date":"2024-02-22T18:04:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T00:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asbestosclaims.law\/?post_type=blog&p=15840"},"modified":"2024-02-22T18:07:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T00:07:12","slug":"asbestos-diseases-beyond-mesothelioma","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.asbestosclaims.law\/es\/asbestos-blog\/asbestos-diseases-beyond-mesothelioma\/","title":{"rendered":"Asbestos Diseases Beyond Mesothelioma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Asbestos causes a variety of cancers in the respiratory and digestive systems.\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who was regularly exposed to asbestos should get screened for asbestos damage.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Asbestos has long been at the epicenter of a near-unprecedented public health crisis.\u00a0<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

While we now know that asbestos is a potent carcinogen, capable of causing cancer and ravaging the body from the inside-out, it was once a mainstay of American industry.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For nearly a century, companies across the country relied on asbestos to manufacture a startling array of products, from cigarette filters<\/a> and consumer cosmetics<\/a> to vinyl floor tile<\/a> and roofing cement<\/a>. Asbestos, at the time, was inescapable\u2014a substance marketed as inexpensive, strong, and incredibly resilient. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1940 and 1979, an estimated 27 million workers<\/a> were exposed to asbestos-tainted materials<\/a>\u2014an understated and scarcely-recognized risk that endangered entire families<\/a>, and poisoned the physical foundations<\/a> of communities throughout the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, few people contest that asbestos is anything but safe. Yet, in spite of proposed bans and sweeping federal regulation<\/a>, it remains a common contaminant that continues to drive diagnoses of life-altering illnesses and potentially lethal cancers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Origins of America\u2019s Asbestos Epidemic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asbestos is a type of naturally-occurring mineral<\/a> that can be found around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although asbestos comes in a half-dozen different forms, they all share certain common characteristics. These include a fibrous structure, which is resistant to fire, electricity, and corrosion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asbestos Across the Ages<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since asbestos is fireproof and almost entirely heat-resistant, it has long been used in the manufacture of products. Even in ancient times, asbestos was worked into a startling array of materials, from Neolithic cookware<\/a> to Roman candle wicks<\/a> and tablecloths.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, for many thousands of years, the asbestos industry was little more than an unusual niche. But when manufacturing and trade began to modernize in the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> centuries, asbestos was quickly identified as a promising and low-cost alternative to other inorganic insulators. Deposits were located across countries and continents, providing ready access to literal tons of asbestos\u2014asbestos that fireproof steam engines, or reduce the risk of life-threatening conflagrations in densely-populated cities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United States, asbestos production rose precipitously during and after the Second World War, peaking sometime between the late 1960s and early 1970s<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asbestos, much like tobacco in decades past, was marketed as an attractive commodity without any apparent downside\u2014it made homes safer, with its presence all but guaranteeing a certain measure of durability in consumer goods and playthings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asbestos, much like tobacco in decades past, was marketed as an attractive commodity without any apparent downside\u2014it made homes safer, with its presence all but guaranteeing a certain measure of durability in consumer goods and playthings.<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Asbestos Industry\u2019s Role in Creating a Modern Health Crisis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even at the height of the asbestos industry\u2019s heyday, scientists were skeptical that the \u201cmiracle mineral<\/a>\u201d was truly without its disadvantages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As early as 1924, a British physician published a short case study<\/a> documenting pulmonary illness in an English woman, Nellie Kershaw<\/a>, whose work as a rover required that she spend hours each day spinning raw asbestos into yarn. Kershaw died young, at the age of 33, after having waged a years-long fight against then-inexplicable respiratory symptoms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But an examination of Kershaw\u2019s lungs proved what doctors had already suspected: her pleural tissue had been ravaged by asbestos dust<\/a>, the particles from which caused the extensive scarring and inflammation we now know to be the telltale signs of asbestosis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, a growing and seemingly-incontestable body of evidence showed that asbestos exposure was a risk factor for a far wider range of diseases, up to and including cancer. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

However, just as Kershaw\u2019s employer had fought tooth-and-nail to avoid paying disability benefits, so too did American asbestos companies refuse to acknowledge that their products were anything but safe. Although they themselves quickly learned of asbestos\u2019s dangers, they engaged in a protracted public relations campaign<\/a>, suppressing new research and funneling millions of dollars to Congress to forestall more stringent asbestos regulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time that the federal Environmental Protection Agency finally began restricting authorized uses of asbestos in the early 1970s, the damage had been done: some 27 million Americans had been exposed to asbestos in the workplace, while countless others developed disease through para-occupational and environmental sources of exposure<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asbestos-Related Illnesses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The death of Nellie Kershaw in 1924 provided compelling evidence of the role that asbestos plays in poisoning the body from the inside. But Kershaw\u2019s probable cause of death was asbestosis\u2014a condition that, while sometimes serious, can typically be managed through well-timed intervention and regular medical care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, asbestos exposure presents risks far beyond asbestosis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exposure, whether at home or in the workplace, is associated with a wide and diverse range of illnesses. These illnesses vary in both severity and long-term survivability, encompassing everything from asymptomatic forms of pleural disease to potentially life-threatening malignant mesothelioma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, asbestos fibers can even interact with other risk factors\u2014like cigarette-smoking, or inherited genetic traits\u2014to subtly influence an individual\u2019s odds of developing certain conditions, not all of which can be exclusively attributed to a history of asbestos exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn some cases, asbestos fibers can even interact with other risk factors\u2014like cigarette-smoking, or inherited genetic traits\u2014to subtly influence an individual\u2019s odds of developing certain conditions, not all of which can be exclusively attributed to a history of asbestos exposure.\u201d<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n