Mesothelioma Lawyers Blog

In the United States every year, an estimated 2,500 people die because they were exposed to asbestos at some point in their life. Many of these victims die from mesothelioma, lung cancer or other illnesses that are caused by asbestos fibers that become lodged in their lungs.

Our Boston mesothelioma lawyers know that the United States government has imposed very strict limitations on the use of asbestos since the dangers of this silicate product were first identified. However, the U.S. remains one of the few industrialized countries throughout the world that has not instituted a comprehensive asbestos ban. In other locations, such as in Spain, a complete ban on asbestos means that there is a projected end-date for mesothelioma deaths.
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Asbestos exposure may seem like a relic of the past since the dangers of asbestos have been known for decades and asbestos is now tightly controlled and no longer used in new buildings or other common products. Unfortunately, mesothelioma lawyers in Boston know that people continue to be exposed to asbestos far too frequently. Not only that, but new cases of mesothelioma and asbestosis are diagnosed every day as people who were exposed decades ago finally become ill as a result of the damage the asbestos fibers have done to their bodies over decades.

As a new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study reveals that Americans are still losing hundreds of thousands of years of productive life because of asbestos, it is more important than ever before for employers and employees to be aware that there are still significant risks that workers will be exposed to and injured by asbestos.
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Our Boston mesothelioma lawyers know that many victims who developed mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos fibers were exposed on the job. However, there were also a lot of products that were widely sold for decades that contained asbestos. One such product was a patented “Micronite” filter found in Kent cigarettes.

Lorillard Tobacco introduced Kent cigarettes with the Micronite filter in 1952, with the filter containing a form as asbestos that the Sacramento Bee describes as “particularly virulent.” The product with the asbestos-filter remained on the market until it was changed in 1956. Decades later, Lorilland Tobacco faced numerous lawsuits because of the filter as did the company, Hollingsworth & Vose, that supplied the filter material containing the asbestos.
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Firefighters are exposed not just to smoke, but also to chemicals and old building materials when they save people’s lives while fighting fires. Unfortunately, our Boston mesothelioma lawyers know that many of the buildings where firefighters do their work have asbestos materials within them. This puts firefighters at risk of developing asbestos-related illnesses including mesothelioma.

A new report from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) underscores just how serious the increased risk of mesothelioma is for firefighters. As the CDC reports, firefighters as a population had two times greater the rate of mesothelioma than the population as a whole. The new NIOSH study was the first to identify an increased risk of mesothelioma among firefighters and it is cause for major concern as mesothelioma can be difficult to treat and has a high fatality rate.
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